Lightning
by ihaveastory
Summary: Chapter 13 is finally up. This is a New Guy Fic for people who like strange music and happiness.
1. strangers

Lightning 

Summary: I'm sick of Dean and Jess. I love them dearly, but I am moving on. Rory gets a new man in my story.

Disclaimer: I only own myself.

Rating: I really have no idea, but I guess I'll go with PG for now.

Warning: I have a tendency to get distracted and not finish stories, but I will try with this one if you like it.

Chapter One: Strangers 

He had arrived at Yale. The prestigious school that had been around for hundreds of years and bred some of the greatest and worst minds in history. It was highly overrated. Oh well.

She sat under her favorite tree reading William Carlos Williams' The Mule. She took a moment while turning the page to glance around at her surroundings. Yale. She had worked so hard to get here and loved it dearly, but couldn't help feeling that it was slightly overrated. College students were college students no matter how old the school was, no matter how high the tuition was. In the end it probably wouldn't matter where she had gone to college. Oh well. She liked it just fine anyway.

He decided to take a walk around the campus to get to know this strange place a little more. He grabbed his iPod, a pair of sunglasses to fend off the bright clouds of the New England September, his wallet, and a pen (just in case). He glided out of his single room without any fear of the thousands of other people wandering around the campus. He had nothing to fear and he knew it. He was an attractive, young man at one of the greatest schools in the world. Everything was going to be OK.

She finished the chapter, stuck a blade of grass on the page, and closed the book. She looked up at the sky and then smelled the air. It was going to rain soon. She loved the rain. Almost as good as snow, but not quite. Slowly, she stood up, stretching her soar legs, and wiping stray pieces of grass from her pants. She tried to check to see if she had gotten any grass stains on the back of her pants, but suddenly felt rather stupid trying to check out her own ass, so she stopped, giving a slight glance at the people around her to see if they noticed her. She was always afraid of all the strangers that were constantly around her at Yale. In Stars Hollow there were no strangers. There was no fear. Well, no real fear anyway. Now she was constantly paranoid about all the strangers and what they would think of her, a pretty girl at Yale. Everything was too much for her to grasp at once.

He looked up at the sky and saw that rain was coming. He loved the rain. He didn't get much of it at his father's house, but it reminded him of London, where his mother sometimes lived. He began to walk more slowly as he saw the other people around him begin to speed up to get away from the impending storm. He watched them move. The frantic grabbing of books, the raising of hoods, some had umbrellas (damn Ivy League kids), why couldn't they just slow down and appreciate the miracle of nature?

She wasn't standing so that she could get out of the rain. No she would stay outside. She just didn't want her books to get wet. She watched as others ran for cover. They didn't seem so scary when she looked at them like that. They looked ridiculous. Running like the sky was about to open up and let drop big balls of fire instead of little drops of water. As she looked around she caught sight of a person who wasn't running. He was tall with dark skin and a wide grin. He had on a pair of sunglasses that on most would look absurd, but on him, they were merely intriguing. He had his hands clasped behind his head as he looked up at the sky and she noticed that he began to laugh when there was a clap of thunder. He let out a whoop for joy, completely unfazed by the stares this earned from the surrounding students. Fascinating. Very fascinating.

He brought his arms down from around his neck and stretched them out by his sides as though her were an airplane. He didn't mind that people were watching him. In fact, he quite enjoyed it. He let out another cry of delight, this time for their benefit. He was about to give up on the people at this school when he noticed someone else outside about thirty feet away. She was a fair, waifish girl with dark brown hair and ivory skin. She was looking in his direction with a smile.

As their eyes met, the sky flashed blue with lightning and the rain began to fall in huge, coin sized drops. He began to spin around in the rain, dancing through newly formed puddles in the direction of this fascinating creature. She too began to jump through puddles in a path that led her too the dancing man. When they were within a foot of one another the universe recorded their encounter with a strike of thunder. They grinned at each other and he reached out his hand to brush a soaked strand of her hair out of her eyes. He was struck still by the beauty of her eyes. He had never seen eyes like that. He was almost afraid that he would drown in them. He brought his hand away from her face and removed his sunglasses to get a better look at her. She stared into his deep brown eyes. They were almost black and she felt like she could fall right into them. They both stared at each other in silence for a moment, the dancing had stopped, their smiles had faded into intense concentration, but the rain continued to drip down their cheeks, and the rapid pitter of the drops was the same speed as the beating of their hearts. When another strike of thunder stirred them from their reverie, his big, full lips spread into another wide grin, his dazzling white teeth making the grin contagious.

"I'm Tade." He shouted through the strident storm. (A/N Tade is pronounced tod-e, with two syllables.)

"I'm Rory." She returned with a small laugh. She didn't know what she was laughing about. All she knew was that this thrilling stranger did not scare her.

He laughed as well. He didn't need a reason to laugh other than pure happiness.

It seemed that Yale wouldn't be so bad after all.


	2. wow

Lightning Chapter Two: Wow 

As the rain began to die down they both realized just how soaked they were.

"Is your dorm room around here?" he asked in a deep, warm voice that made Rory feel safe.

"No." she responded still laughing, now at the prospect of having to trudge back to her dorm on the other side of campus in the mud with wet, heavy clothing. It didn't matter. She just laughed. Everything was funny with Tade.

"I'm just around the corner. Do you want to come dry off with me before journeying back to your place?" he asked not only to be polite, but because he was afraid of this girl walking away from him and disappearing into thin air.

"Sure." She replied without any hesitancy although she would usually be reluctant about going back to a stranger's room. But Tade wasn't a stranger.

He grinned again, glad that he wouldn't lose her just yet. As they walked back to his room, he noticed that she kept sliding around in her flip-flops, constantly about to fall over. He let out a loud exclamation of laughter and stopped walking. He crouched down and turned to Rory who by now had acknowledged his odd behavior and stopped.

"You're going to hurt yourself. Climb on." He said indicating his back with a nod of his head.

"That's really ok. You don't need to carry me. I'll be fine." She said with a small blush.

"I insist. It's not that far but I only have three band-aids on me and don't like seeing people get hurt so please just accept my offer." He said crouching lower.

"Fine." She was still blushing as she climbed on his back trying desperately not to be heavy although she knew this was impossible.

Once she was on, he stood up with his hands clasped under her knees and hers around his shoulders. She wasn't too heavy at all and he started to walk them back to his room. Out of habit he started to whistle as he walked not even conscious that he was doing it. She heard him begin to whistle a very familiar tune that she couldn't seem to place. He was a great whistler. Most people were rather annoying when they whistled, but with Tade it was an art. Suddenly she realized what the tune was and began to laugh. It was the song, "The Bear Necessities" from Disney's "The Jungle Book." He turned to look at her when he heard her laughter.

"What?" he asked completely oblivious as to what could be causing this laughter. It wasn't the sort of laughter that came from just being happy, it was the kind of laughter that was obviously in reaction to something else and he wanted to know what it was so that he could join in the hilarity.

"Nothing, Baloo." She returned with a pointed smile.

When he realized what she had been laughing about he smiled and began to whistle again.

As they reached the building in which his room was, Rory was preparing for him to put her down so that he could open the doors, but instead he just stretched his right arm farther behind him and took a hold of her behind so that he could use his left arm to open the doors while still keeping her on his back. At first she was very uncomfortable with having his large hand holding onto her ass, but when she saw that he didn't find this awkward at all she just felt silly getting embarrassed.

Once in his room, he walked them over to the bed where he sat down and let Rory slide off of his back. She had a fleeting moment of discomfort when she realized that she was straddling his waist but was soon distracted by the contents of his room. First of all, he had a single room. It also appeared that he had not only brought his own mattress but his own king sized bed. On one wall he had a large tapestry of sorts with the image of a desert scene woven into it. On the wall across from the bed was a flat screen television with shelves and shelves of movies and books underneath. On the other wall there were two large windows with white, flowing curtains and Venetian blinds. The last wall had the door they came in through and another closed door. She didn't know Yale even had rooms like this.

Tade stood up slowly as he realized that he had some how trapped Rory into straddling him. He didn't mind this. In fact, he quite enjoyed it, but he had just met this girl and he wanted to be polite. He opened the other door in the room to reveal his own personal bathroom. He took off his shirt and began to towel himself off.

"How did you get your own bathroom?" Rory blurted before she suddenly noticed that Tade had taken off his shirt, exposing his beautifully sculpted dark chest. She felt a blush sweep across her cheeks, but he looked unfazed as he handed her a towel.

"Oh," he laughed, "my father pulled a few strings. I asked him not to but he wouldn't hear of me using a communal bathroom.

Rory wiped her arms and neck with the towel and then she noticed the golden monogram on the corner of the towel. "Rich?" Why could she not control her mouth when she was with this boy? Her blush grew stronger and looked away, but he merely laughed again.

"Yeah. He is quite a wealthy man." He didn't seem pompous when he said it. He made her stop feeling embarrassed about her questions. He didn't mind. He was used to it. After another moment of just smiling he noticed that she was shivering. "Oh, I'm sorry. You must be freezing." He took a new down quilt out of a box on the floor and handed it to her. She accepted it gratefully. "Would you like a change of clothing?

"UhÉ" Rory was a little unsure of how she was meant to respond. How was she supposed to get a change of clothing from a six-foot man?

"I don't really know how to help about the pants situation, but at least I can give you a t-shirt." He said noticing her apprehension. He dug through another box for a moment before bringing out a pack of white, Hanes t-shirts. "Sorry they're not nicer, but I just really like to go simple with my t-shirts." He handed her a single shirt and urged her to take it with a smile.

"Thanks," she returned with a shy smile as she stood to take the shirt and moved to change in the bathroom. As she moved past him, her arm grazed his still bare abs and a soft glowing feeling took over their bodies. He shut the door behind her to give her some privacy and he went to go stretch out on the bed.

"Wow," he mumbled to himself.

On the other side of the door, Rory had taken a moment to sit on the edge of the bathtub. "Wow," she breathed.


	3. getting to know you

Lightning 

A/N: For you cynical types (of whom I am one) who are about to read this, just know that although this story seems farfetched, anything is possible, and this is merely a better version of a semi-true story, as all great things are.

Chapter Three: Getting To Know You 

When Rory stepped out of the bathroom somewhat more dry in the clean, new t-shirt, she found Tade, now wearing a white, Hanes wife-beater and white, linen pants, kneeling in front of his video shelved apparently searching for a movie. As he heard the bathroom door close behind her, he looked over to her with raised eyebrows and shining, white teeth in an expansive smile.

"Care to join me in the viewing of a film?" he asked in his most charming tone.

"That depends," she countered with a smile of her own. He looked at her expectantly. "What are we watching?

He just laughed a warm breeze of a laugh more to himself than to her as he stuck a video into the VCR.

"What's so funny?" Rory asked with a small, perplexed crease in her forehead.

"Just hunker down here and get ready for the feature presentation." He said patting the bed beside him.

With a shrug she complied, her gaze shifting between the man on her right and the television screen. Her eyes grew three sizes bigger when she saw the Disney logo appear on the screen and as the shooting star sparkled over the Disney castle she smiled broadly and looked back to Tade, who was now watching her excitedly.

"Do you approve?" he asked with hope.

"Very much." She responded settling back against the headboard waiting to see which Disney picture he had chosen.

When she suddenly identified the first few images as the beginning of Aladdin, she let out a giddy giggle. "I haven't seen this in years!

"That's the most awful thing I've ever heard. I watch this at least once every three weeks." He said, pulling away slightly so that he could see her enjoyment better.

After watching the screen in relative silence, (until the part where Aladdin gets trapped in the cavern), with Rory sneaking furtive glances every now and then and Tade blatantly watching her, he turned his entire body towards her.

"Tell me about yourself," he requested with a fascinated expression of glee.

"My name is Lorelai Gilmore and I hate mushrooms. Now you." She responded turning to look at his intrigued face. He had high cheekbones and his eyes crinkled with his smile. God he was beautiful.

"My name is Tade Ntekim and I too have an aversion to mushrooms. Eating a mushroom is what I image eating a nose would be like." He returned with twinkling eyes that were like black diamonds. He looked deeply into her aquatic eyes and his smile grew. God she was beautiful. "Where did you grow up?" he asked, still interested.

"In a little town in here in Connecticut called Stars Hollow. 

"Oh a bumpkin, I see." He said with a slight elbow nudge.

"Hey, I'm no bumpkin, where'd you grow up?" she said giving him a playful swat.

"Well, I was born in a small country south of the Sahara Desert and I spent a lot of my childhood there, but I also lived in London, with my mom after my parents got divorced and in Paris with one of my brothers for a bit, and then I've spent large amounts of time in New York and LA as well." As he was listing these places off, his gaze had traveled to his fingers, but when he finished he looked up to see Rory's astounded face.

"Good lord, I am a bumpkin." She responded entirely amazed by his life.

"I was just joking. I'm sure your town is wonderful. Did you live there with your parents?" he asked. He didn't want to assume anything about her. He wanted to get to know this girl. She seemed so special. He felt like he had found a secret treasure in this small-town girl.

"My father lives in Boston. I grew up with just my mother. We're really close. She had me when she was sixteen and so she's also my best friend." She stopped then because she realized that she was rambling, not out of nervousness, but just because she wanted to tell this man about herself and she wanted to know about him too.

"Oh my mother had me when she was seventeen. I'm close with her, but I have a lot of other family too, so we never got to spend all out time together." He explained.

"Do you have other siblings, besides the brother in Paris?" she finally got to ask a question.

"Yeah, I have six older brothers and three older sisters." Once again she was gawking at him, but he just laughed. "Most of us have different mothers. My father is somewhat of a womanizer and has been married and divorced many times. He's a very independent man and he doesn't respond well to marriage, I just don't know why he won't learn his lesson." He too found himself to be rambling and so he just trailed off with a breathy laugh. They both just smiled at each other for a moment before letting their eyes drift back to the television screen.

"I always wanted to be a princess." Rory stated as she watched the film.

"It's not like it is in the movies." He replied calmly.

"What no song and dance numbers?" she joked.

"Oh don't worry, there are songs and dances just not so much drama." He answered seriously.

"And how did you get this top-secret information?" she teased.

"I'm a prince." He stated.

Rory laughed loudly until she realized that Tade wasn't laughing he just looked at her quizzically. "Wait. What?" she asked.

"I'm a prince." He said again.

"Seriously?" she seemed hesitant to believe him.

"Yes." Tade said.

"You're pulling my leg." She laughed.

"I pull not. I am tenth in line to be king of my father's country.

"You're actually a prince? Your father is a king?" She asked amazed.

"Yes. I have the choice position of being the prince without having to worry about ever being king. All my brothers and sisters are before me in line." He explained as though this was the most normal thing in the world.

"Holy crap dude!" she exclaimed. "Oh man, I just called a prince dude," she mumbled to herself.

"Don't worry. I don't need special treatment. I don't want special treatment. That's why I didn't want to go to college at home. It's amazing how much the American people don't care about my country. It's refreshing in fact." He said with a laugh.

"Really? You don't have body guards or anything?" she asked beginning to get very interested again.

"Nope, no body guards. Well, when I'm at home I have an escort, but that's different. And there's only serious security when all of my siblings and I are together at the same time, which is almost never. It's really not a big deal. Royalty schmoyalty." He replied with a wave of his hand.

"Yeah, that's what I always say." Rory joked. She felt comfortable around him again. Intrigued, yet comfortable.

They watched the movie in silence again for a little while until Rory asked a question.

"Do you have a crown?

"Technically, yes. But it's kept in a vault, it's more of a symbol than an accessory for everyday use Ôcause you know it's just so hard to find shoes that will work well with a crown." He answered with a grin.

There was silence again until Rory turned to him, "Do you have a palace?

"Yes, my father does. And I have houses around the world too." He replied.

"Cool." Rory cringed at how dumb that sounded.

"It is cool." He said with a laugh.

They laughed and smiled and chatted together some more and watched the movie. When it ended, Rory reluctantly got up form the bed.

"I should go back to my dorm. It's getting kind of late and I have work to do." She explained.

"Do you really have to go?" Tade asked with a pout.

"Yes, unfortunately." She quietly replied with a fleeting blush.

"I suppose you're right," he said getting up from the bed to join Rory by the door. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, white card. "This is my card. Can I get your number? Let's get coffee or a meal or something some time. Perhaps we won't have to get all soggy next time." He said giving her his card.

"That sounds nice." Rory conceded. "Do you have a pen?" she asked.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cheap, Bic pen. "I always have a pen." He said handing it to her.

"Good to know. Do you also happen to carry around paper?" she asked looking around the room for something to write her number on.

"I'm afraid I'm not completely prepared all the time. But why don't you just write your number on that box over there." He said pointing to an empty, cardboard box by the wall.

"Ok." She said with a shrug and she knelt down and wrote her number in a large, yet dainty scrawl across the box. When she was finished, Tade extended his hand to hers and pulled her back off the ground. They both stood staring at each other for a moment, holding hands before he broke the silence with a giggle (a deep, manly giggle).

"I guess I should go. I'll give your shirt back when we get that meal." Rory promised as she slipped her hand out of his.

"You can keep it." He said.

"Wow, a royal t-shirt." She teased.

"Yes. One that I bought at K-Mart. Enjoy." He said with a regal bow.

"Thank you your highness." She responded with a slight curtsy.

"My pleasure, my dear country bumpkin." he said as he trailed a long, elegant finger down her jaw then toped it off with a light kiss on her cheek.

She laughed at him and he laughed at her as they both parted and went their separate ways.

He watched as she walked away and was afraid that she was a dream. He had met many people in his life and none had ever been as enchanting as this startling individual. In his eyes, she was the true royalty.

As she walked away, she felt his eyes on her retreating back. She was afraid she had fallen into a fairy tale dream and that she could wake up at any moment. Seriously, how many times does a girl meet a dream boy who is also a prince? When she rounded a corner and knew she was out of his line of vision she took out her cell phone and pressed the number one key. When she got the voice mail she left a message.

"Mom, call me back. Just a preview of what's to come: I got a piggyback ride and a free t-shirt from a prince and there is a very great chance we will meet for a meal in the near future." With that she hung up and smiled her way back to her room.


	4. perfect

Lightning

A/N: Just so you know, I am aware of he end quotation marks issue. It's like this in all my stories and for the life of me I cannot figure out how to keep my quotation marks from disappearing in the uploading process. I apologize. Also, I am making up the country of which Tade is prince because I read something about not being able to use real people in these fanfics, which I completely understand, but I see no harm in making up entire countries, so that's exactly what I did.

Chapter Four: Perfect

After floating back to her room, Rory sat down to write a paper about the imagery of hands used throughout Toni Morrison's Beloved for her American Literature class. All she could think about, however, was the feel of Tade's hand brushing across her cheek and their strong, yet delicate, artistic, grace. They were like snowflakes made of steel. _Rory, that doesn't make any sense! Stop being poetic and start being analytical! You are not allowed to think about him until you write at least 500 words. _She mentally yelled at herself. She could be so cruel sometimes. After writing her name, the name of her professor, and the date the paper was due in the top, right corner, her mind began to drift again. He smelled really good too. Like freshly cut grass and feathers. Ugh! She was never going to get any work done.

After Tade went back to his room, he attempted to unpack some more of his things from the number of boxes that cluttered his room. His eyes drifted to the ten digits of Rory's cell phone number. She had beautiful handwriting. Of course she would have beautiful handwriting; she had beautiful hands. They were precise and feminine. He longed to hold her hand again. Unconsciously he took the pen out of his pocket and began to draw her hand from his memory on the side of the box that held her number. So much for unpacking.

Rory was still staring at her unwritten paper when her cell phone started to play the tune of the Ghost Busters theme song. She grabbed it with more speed than she knew she possessed.

"Hello?" she answered in her most unaffected tone.

"So tell me about this prince." Her mother said with anticipation.

"Oh, it's you." Rory mumbled, slightly disappointed that it wasn't Tade, but still glad that she could now discuss him with her mother.

"Be careful there. I don't want you to get too excited. You could pull a muscle or chip a nail or something." Lorelai sarcastically replied.

"Sorry, I was hoping it was Tade." Rory apologized.

"Is Tade the prince?" her mother asked, forgetting about the previous moment.

"Yes." Rory answered with an inward smile at the thought of her prince.

"So you weren't joking? Are you sure he wasn't joking? This all seems a little too Disney to me." Lorelai let this all out in one breath.

"I thought he was joking at first too, but he seemed really serious. And it's funny you should mention Disney because we actually watched Aladdin together and he owns every Disney film I have ever heard of." She spouted.

"Honey, that's great, but I'm still stuck on this prince thing. What country is he the prince of?" Her mother asked.

"It's called Sable D'Or. (A/N: Sand of Gold) I had never heard of it before, but I just Googled it and low and behold it is actually there, sandwiched between Nigeria and Benin (A/N: No. It's not really there)." She released returning to the same fascination she had felt while studying the online map.

"Huh." Her mother paused for a moment. "Is he black?" she asked bluntly.

"Yeah." Rory replied.

"Huh.

"Again with the Ôhuh'. What are you huhing?" She asked slightly perturbed.

"Nothing. You just don't get a lot of black people in Stars Hollow. I was just thinking about that. It's weird. The town will find this interesting. Oh man, my mother will pee herself." Lorelai laughed.

"Why? Why is this so unheard of?" Rory asked slightly more annoyed.

"Well I think it's great that you've found someone you like, but everyone else is just going to focus on the fact that white, little Rory has found herself a black man." Her mother explained.

"I didn't think of that. Of course, it totally doesn't matter what they think, but when I met him I just completely didn't notice the whole black factor. I mean, I obviously saw it, but I didn't see it. You know?" She asked without expecting an answer. "I was just so caught up in the sight of this beautiful man, with the most amazing smile dancing through the rain as though he didn't have a care in the world. It was entrancing." She sighed.

"That sounds so romantic." Lorelai said dreamily. "Meeting in the rain. What happened next?" She asked, snapping back into curiosity.

"Well, the rain stopped after a bit more dancing, and he invited me back to his room do dry offÉ" her words drifted off as she adjusted her seating position so that her legs were dangling over the arm of her desk chair.

"Wait. You went back to his room? What happened then? I'm having a heart attack." Her mother's words were frantic.

"Why are you freaking out?" Rory was entirely confused.

"The way you just let your sentence drift off, was that an innuendo of some sort? You're killing your mother here." Lorelai was hyperventilating at this point.

"What? No! I was just trying to get more comfortable in my chair. I didn't sleep with him! I just met him!" she shouted.

"Sorry. Sorry. Just a little freak out. Nothing new. Please continue. He invited you back to his roomÉ" She said, now calming down.

"Anyway," she said rolling her eyes, "I agreed to go back to his dorm to dry off, you caught that right? That's not an innuendo for sex. Ok?" She teased.

"Alright. Alright. Get on with the story and make fun of me later. I'm on the edge of my seat here." Lorelai said with her own eyes rolling now.

"So, we're walking back to his room, and of course, in true Rory fashion, I'm wearing the wrong kind of shoes for a romantic dance in the rain.

"Well, how is anyone suppose to prepare for one of the those?" her mother asked rhetorically.

"I know! So I'm sliding all around in my flip-flops, trying desperately not to fall over, because that is not the way to make a good first impression." She explained.

"No. Not at all. Good call.

"Right, so I'm trying not to fall, but I'm trying to be discreet about my struggling, because that's the ladylike thing to do.

"Of course." Her mother interjected.

"Suddenly, in the midst of my struggles I realize that Tade has stopped walking and he is crouching expectantly at my side." Rory dispensed.

"What the hell for?" her mother asked getting into the story.

"That's what I was thinking! And then, get this, he says Ôclimb on'." She said with wide eyes.

"Dirty!

"Hey! Hey! Out of the gutter, mother. He told me that he noticed my flip-flop issues and he didn't want me to hurt myself so he told me to get on his back so that he could carry me safely back to his dorm." She said with a smile, as she relived the moment in her mind.

"Oh man, I'm swooning over here." Lorelai said with a sigh.

"And he's a prince!" Rory exclaimed more to herself than to her mother.

"I need my smelling salts." Her mother said while mock fanning herself until she remembered that Rory couldn't see her.

"Ok. Now you're completely caught up with where I am right now. So I have to go pretend to write a paper but actually think about his beautiful face, and eyes, and hands, andÉ smell." She sighed.

"Oh, my baby caught herself a real live prince. I taught you well. Call me when you get any updates on the prince situation. Bye sweets." Lorelai said with embellished pride.

"I will. Bye mom." Rory flipped her cell phone closed and sighed to herself again as she turned back to her computer screen.

By this point, Tade had already moved form drawing Rory's hands to drawing her lips and on to painting her eyes. They were disconnected images on the box, just as they were in his mind. Floating around like cotton candy in his brain. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to call her. He took out his cell phone and dialed the number he had already memorized.

"Hello?" She picked up in the middle of the first ring and he smiled to himself.

"Sweet bumpkin dear, it is my royal request that you join me for dinner tomorrow evening." He said through an expanding grin.

"Well, lordy, ah'd just love to eat with a real live prince. It's always been mah dream ever since ah was a little girl playin' in the dirt with Billy-Jo and Mary-Jo." She said trying to sound like a hillbilly.

"Well, I only want to make your dreams come true." He said sincerely as his grin had grown to almost unmanageable proportions.

"Thank you. Seriously, I would very much enjoy having dinner with you tomorrow." She said with a growing smile of her own.

"Then it's a date. I'll pick you up at seven." He said trying to control the giddy feeling in his stomach. "Where's your dorm?" he asked after he suddenly remembered he didn't know.

"Oh, I'm in Durfee, first suit on the left on the first floor." She replied.

"Durfee. Oh man, now that's embarrassing." He joked.

"Yes. Yes it is." She agreed although she did not feel embarrassed at all. She felt like there was no room in her body for any emotion besides pure bliss.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Rory." He let her name roll of his tongue and he realized that it was the first time he had said it out loud and he had to restrain himself from saying it over and over again.

"See you then. Bye Tade." She almost whispered through her happiness as she hung up. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes to picture his face again. _Perfect,_ she thought to herself.

He felt as though rainbows and sunshine would shoot out of his fingertips if he didn't hold his hands together that was how happy he was. He clasped his hands behind his head and lay back on his wooden floors gazing into his memory at the image he held of her. _Perfect_,


	5. nonemergencies

Lightning

A/N: Although it seems that Smile1 is the only person reading this story, I will continue writing because I want to. I would just like to mention that getting reviews is like a little Christmas in my heart, so please, bring me joy and review my work.

Chapter Five: Non-Emergencies

The next night, at 5pm, Rory stepped out of her shower, put on a bathrobe, went to her room, opened the closet door, and stared. What on earth was she supposed to wear? She didn't know where they were going. Thus, she didn't know if she should go fancy or casual. This was the biggest problem with dating. She may not have had a lot of experience in this department, but she did know that there is nothing more vexing to a woman than not knowing the appropriate attire for the situation at hand. All dates would be better if the guy said, "I will pick you up at seven and this is a skirt and heels situation." So it would be a little gay at first, but if everybody started doing it, life would be much easier. _Great Rory, that can be your college thesis, How To Reform The Dating Attire Problem, but you still don't know what to wear and you've already wasted ten minutes_, she shouted into her mind. Ugh! She had to call her mother.

At the same time over in Tade's room, he stepped out of his bath, shook the water off of his body, walked out into his room, and stood, stark naked, staring at all of the crap he owned. What the hell was he supposed to wear? He didn't even know where he was taking her. His brother, Essien had once warned him that he should always give his date an advanced clue about what she should wear, but how was he meant to do that when he couldn't even dress himself. "Why don't you figure out where you're going before you pick your clothing," he said aloud to himself. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Nice. But where are we going? Where is there to go? I mean is there a Yale Zagot? Probably not. Should I try and go fancy? You know, really wow her, or should I play it cool?" he asked himself. Ugh! He had to call Essien.

"Mom! Mom! Please pick up!" Rory whined into the answering machine at her mother's house. "It's an emergency!" she tried. She heard the phone be turned on followed by a loud clatter, a scratchy, static noise, and heavy breathing.

"Rory? Are you ok?" a gruff man's voice answered. After some shock and confusion Rory recognized the voice as Luke's.

"Luke?" Rory asked still confused as to why Luke was answering her mother's phone.

"Yeah, it's me. What's wrong? What's the emergency?" he asked still worried about what could have caused Rory's frantic phone message.

"Why are you at my house answering the phone? Where's mom?" she asked without any hostility, only confusion.

"Oh, I'm, uh, your mom's still at the inn, I'm, uh, well, I'm making dinner for her tonight." Luke answered, ever so slightly embarrassed.

"Oh." Was all Rory could say. Lorelai hadn't told her that there was anything going on with Luke. Well, she wouldn't jump to conclusions. She would ask her mother about this at another time because she was rapidly running out of time.

"What was the emergency Rory?" Luke broke into her thoughts.

"Oh sorry, emergency was a bit of an overstatement to anyone not in my situation, although to me it is quite serious, hence the flustered message on the answering machine that you must have heard, which may have been frightening, but I didn't think anyone besides my mother would be there and she always knows how to fix non-emergencies, because you know, she is the queen of the non-emergency." Rory babbled.

"Rory. Rory! I stopped understanding you a while back, but your mother won't be back for another hour or so, but I'm guessing that's to long for you to wait, so, uh, maybe I could help with your problem. Unless it's a mother-daughter thing or just a woman thing because I really can't help with anything like that, and I really don't want to either." Luke began to babble himself as he tried to help without getting too involved.

"Don't worry, it's not a woman thing." Rory rushed with reddening cheeks. "I'm just, uh, trying to figure out what I should wear on a date I have tonight, and I can't come up with anything. I don't know if you could help, but I don't know, I mean you go on dates, occasionally, maybe you could tell me what I should wear." She said with hope.

"Oh, I don't know. This isn't really my thing." Luke said getting tense.

"Please Luke, I'm going on my first date with a really nice guy that I met yesterday, but he didn't tell me where he's taking me and I don't know if I should go casual or fancy or how to meld those two together. I just need some guidance." Rory quickly forgot who she was talking to because she had gotten so desperate for help.

"Oh, well if you just met yesterday this means it's a spur of the moment date so he probably doesn't know where he's taking you yet either." Luke replied losing some of his inhibitions as he realized that he might be able to help Rory. "So don't worry. He's in worse shape than you are. My suggestion is that you go with something casually dressy, you know. If you go too fancy and he wasn't going to take you to a fancy restaurant he's going to feel like crap, but if he is going for a fancy restaurant and you're not dressed appropriately he'll change his plans for you, but then he'll probably be uncomfortable in his own dressy apparel." He rambled as he began to get absorbed into the situation.

"Luke, I'm really glad that you can relate, but you're just making me more freaked out. I still don't know what to wear." Rory quickly said into the phone with a slightly raised voice as she tried to break into Luke's conversation with himself.

"Do you have a black skirt?" Luke asked.

"Yeah.

"Do you have sort of nice looking flip-flops or other flat sandals?" he asked with an outfit forming in his mind.

"Yeah. I have black ones, green ones, brown ones, and blue ones." Rory said slowly trying to see where Luke was going.

"Oh good. Do you have a blue shirt that matches the blue sandals? Maybe a button-down shirt or a non-cotton t-shirt?" he asked.

"Yeah. I have a sleeveless, V-neck, sweatery material thing with a sort of striation going on. How's that?" she asked with a growing smile of confidence on her face.

"Perfect." He said with a smile of his own. "Was that helpful?" he asked suddenly getting worried again when he realized that he had just given Rory fashion advice.

"You were wonderful. Thank you Luke." She said genuinely.

"I'm just glad I could help. Have a good night Rory." He said contentedly.

"You too Luke. Bye." Rory said before hanging up her phone and returning to her closet with new confidence.

Back in Tade's room he was pacing the floor (still naked) as he waited for his brother to pick up the phone.

"Essien's Salon and Spa, this is the prince's life-partner speaking." A male voice came through the speakerphone in a joking tone.

"Hey Mark, it's Tade. Is my brother there?" he asked.

"Yeah, he just walked in." Mark answered. After some shuffling sounds another male voice came through the speakerphone into Tade's room.

"Shombay! How can I help?" Essien exclaimed good-naturedly.

"I'm having a wardrobe crisis." Tade replied.

"So you decided that the person to turn to in your hour of need was your dear faggot of a brother." Essien finished with a smile.

"Exactly.

"Well it's a good thing I live to serve my baby brother. Now, please give me the context for this fashion emergency." Essien ordered calmly. He leaned back in his leather armchair and kicked his feat up on his desk. He was sitting in the back office of the salon and spa he owned and ran with his boyfriend in New York. At the mention of the words "fashion emergency," Mark, a few employees, and even a couple of regular patrons of the establishment looked up to hear what was going on. They all knew Tade. Everyone knew Tade. When Essien saw the interest on everyone else's faces he spoke into the phone, "Shombay? I'm going to put you on speakerphone ok?" he asked as he pushed the speakerphone button.

"Yeah, ok." Tade spoke. "Hi everyone." He said to the other people he knew would be listening in on this conversation.

"Hey!" he heard from the people on the other end.

"We're all here, kid, tell us what's going on." Mark said.

"Well, I met a girl." Tade said.

"Ooooooooh." Was the loud response he received from the multitudes on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah. I met her at school yesterday and she's amazing and beautiful and we danced in the rain and watched Aladdin and I'm supposed to pick her up at seven tonight but I don't know what to wear and I don't even know where I'm taking her yet and I know that that is mean to her as well because she's probably freaking out about what to wear too, but I can't help her until I help myself which can only be accomplished by you helping me. You see my problem?" he exhaled.

"We understand." Essien responded. "The fist thing to do is figure out where you're taking her. You're out at Yale though. Where do you take a person out there? I don't suppose they make a Yale Zaggot." He said mostly to himself.

"Do you want to go casual or fancy?" asked Lena, the girl in charge of the shampooing department.

"I guess I'd like to go casual because I don't want her to feel like the whole prince thing means that I only dine at five star restaurants." Tade explained.

"You already mentioned the prince thing? Wow. You must really like this girl." Essien said.

"Yeah. I really do, but we haven't been on a date yet and I only have an hour and fifteen minutes to make sure that I can win her over." Tade elucidated.

"You're a great guy, Tade. Just take her to a place where she'll be focused on you and she'll be amazed." Lena assured.

"Thanks Lena." Tade said with a smile.

"The problem is that we don't know anything about New Haven so we can't help with where exactly you should take her, but as for clothing, I'm thinking you wear the black, Prada pants, with a plain white t-shirt, with that belt with the turquoise buckle, and then wear that turquoise jacket with the zippers." Essien revealed.

"Thanks Essy, everyone. You've been a huge help. I think I have a plan for where I should take her. I'll call you tomorrow and tell you how it went. Bye." He said with a smile.

"Bye!" Called everyone.

"Good luck little bro." Essien said before they both turned off their phones.

Tade returned to his closet with new confidence. This was going to be a good night.

A/N: When I started writing this chapter I thought it would have the actual date in it, but it seems that I got somewhat long-winded in the pre-date jitters so I will put the date in the next chapter. I will post soon.


	6. a royal meal

Lightning

A/N: I'm sorry it took me a little while to update these last two chapters. I had a lot of work and then I started reading this really good book, pretty much, I got distracted, but I'm back. I will be updating until next Saturday (the 19th I believe) then I will be unable to update for a week, then I'll be back for a bit, and I don't know if I will be able to update in July, but I will try. I am a very busy person. Sorry. I just thought I'd let you folks in on my schedule. I plan for this to be a rather long story, but it may take a while for me to get it all finished. Please bear with me.

Chapter Six: A Royal Meal

Tade's car stopped outside of Rory's dorm. He was nervous. He would deny it until his dying day, but this girl made him nervous. He threw a glance to the trunk where he had gathered supplies for their evening. Everything was there. It was 7:11. He knew to be late enough for her to get ready, but not so late that he was rude. _One should never be rude_, he heard his mother say in his mind. With that he stepped out of his car, closed the door behind him, opened the door to the building (making sure to hold it for the girl behind him), walked to the first door on the left, took a breath, checked his fly, and knocked. After some muffled shouts the door flew opened and he was met with the sight of a visibly perturbed, yet ever so slightly surprised, blonde girl.

"She'll be right out." Paris said recovering from her surprise. Rory hadn't told her anything about this man. All she knew was that Rory was very excited and was getting on her nerves. Needless to say, the man on the other side of the door was not how she imagined. She let herself give one more glance in his direction before walking back to the couch and opening her book.

After feeling a brief rush of confusion he took a tender step through the opened door. He stood there, looking around, feeling jitters inside, but only displaying a calm exterior. After another moment he decided that he couldn't handle the silence anymore.

"I'm Tade." He said in Paris's direction.

"Paris." She said without looking up.

"Nice to meet you. I lived there for a while. In Paris, that is." He said with a faltering smile.

"That's great." She said without even offering fake interest.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

"Can't handle silence can you? You'll work well with Rory, but right now I'm trying to read. And to answer your question: I'm reading White Noise by Don DeLillo." She responded with finality.

"I read that a few months ago." She looked up at him with skepticism. "Which is ironic because the whole book is a satire of mass culture, when it seems that the book itself has become just another factor of mass culture." He said mostly to himself at this point. He didn't notice the flicker of a smile that sped across Paris's face.

Meanwhile, Rory was rushing around her room trying to find her cell phone. After getting dressed she had sat down to read a little and didn't realize what time it was until she heard the knock at the door. Suddenly, she caught sight of the silver corner of her cell phone sticking out from underneath her bed. She grabbed it, put it in her bag with the book she was reading, threw in her wallet, some lip gloss, and a box of tic-tacs. She walked to the door, put her hand on the knob, checked to make sure her skirt was straight, and opened the door.

Tade looked up when he heard the door open. A grin spread across his glowing face when he saw her. Their smiling eyes met. Lightning. She felt like she had just been wrapped in a down comforter. Their smiling reverie was broken by the sound of Paris clearing her throat.

"Oh, sorry. Paris, Tade. Tade, Paris." Rory made hasty introductions.

"We met. I just thought I would stir you two from your haze before you drooled on the floor. That could be a safety hazard." Paris said turning back to her book.

"We should get going." Tade said to a blushing Rory. "It was a pleasure meeting you Paris." He added as he held the door open for Rory.

"Have fun." Paris said with mock enthusiasm although she sincerely meant it.

Outside the room, Rory was about to excuse her roommate's behavior when Tade interjected into her thoughts, "I'm sure she's not as bad as she seems." He said this as he opened the door leading outside for Rory. He was amazing.

"She's really a good person, not one for pleasantries, but she's a good friend when you need one." She explained with a smile as she walked outside ahead of him. She was amazing. He walked straight to his car, opened the passenger side door, and looked back to Rory to see her staring in wonder.

"Is there a problem?" he asked slightly worried.

"This is your car?" she asked ignoring his question and instead focusing on his black, 1957 corvette with red gills and red leather interior. (A/N: if you don't know what this car looks like, I suggest you google it because it is beautiful.)

"Yes. Is it ok? Don't worry, I had seatbelts installed and the engine is in perfect condition." He rambled as the smile on Rory's face got significantly larger.

"Don't worry. I just forgot that a prince would naturally have an astonishing car." She said walking over to the passenger side where Tade was still holding the door open for her.

"Oh. Well, if you're gonna be a prince, why not get a hot car as well?" He said with a smile and a shrug after shutting the passenger door with Rory safely inside.

"That's what I always say." Rory joked as Tade got into the drivers seat and started up the car.

They drove for a few minutes in relative silence except for the purr of the engine and the roar of the wind against their faces. They both had broad smiles on their faces that the wind helped to hold in place. Rory needed to hear his voice again though. "So, where are we going?" she asked.

"I don't really know." Tade replied, turning his smile towards Rory, but keeping his eyes on the road because he knew that if he let himself look at her, even for a moment, he would not be able to look away again.

"Oh." Rory stated. Her mind quickly whipped back to Luke's help earlier. She would have to thank him again next time she went home.

"I mean I have a general idea, but nothing definite. I'm not really the best planner." He admitted.

"Some would call that spontaneity." Rory smiled.

"Well, that may be, but my mother always called it being unprepared." He said.

"Well my mother, who fancies herself the queen of spontaneity, thinks it is one of the most important virtues in a person, and one that she did not pass on to me. I always need to plan and make lists and stuff. She, however, will pick up the night before her wedding and go for a random road trip." She explained.

"Wow. I guess she is the queen. I guess I'll have to settle for being prince." He joked.

Rory smiled at him and turned her eyes back to the passing trees that were beginning to change to different autumn hues. Tade reached his right arm out and turned on the CD player. As the sound of violins filled the car and the air around it, he reached behind his seat to a hidden cooler from which he retrieved two glass bottles of coke. He opened the first one on the dashboard and handed it to Rory as he began to sing along with Frank Sinatra.

"Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you

If you're young at heart.

For it's hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind

If you're young at heart.

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes

You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams.

And life gets more exciting with each passing day

And love is either in your heart or on its way.

Don't you know that it's worth every treasure on earth

To be young at heart.

For as rich as you are it's much better by far

To be young at heart.

And if you should survive to a hundred and five,

Look at all you'll derive out of being alive.

And here is the best part, you had a head start

If you are among the very young at heart." As the musical interlude broke in he let his eyes meet Rory's and he saw a look of awe inspired happiness. He smiled at this and took a sip of his coke.

Rory had never heard anyone sing as beautifully as Tade. His voice was loud and articulate, yet husky with a sex appeal embedded under every curl of his tongue. Even Frank would have been blown away. At every turn he amazed her more and more.

"And if you should survive to a hundred and five

Look at all you'll derive out of being alive.

And here is the best part, you'll have a head start

If you are among the very young at heart." Tade reached his hand out and turned down the volume on the radio as he turned the car on to a side road.

"That was beautiful." Rory said before realizing how dumb it sounded.

"Thank you." He replied somewhat embarrassed. "Sometimes I get a little caught up in the music." He explained in a humble tone.

"Well it was lovely. Feel free to get caught in the music as often as possible. Do you study music at all?" she asked.

"No. My mother made me take the piano when I was younger, but that didn't last long, then I taught myself to play the guitar, but I've never had voice lessons." He responded.

"Well, do you at least use this talent for anything?" she asked rather intrigued.

"Some of my siblings and I hold an annual concert at home to raise money for the nation's orphanages and on occasion I sing at some clubs in New York." He answered.

"Absolutely amazing." Rory exclaimed, mostly to herself, before noticing that the car had slowed significantly and they were pulling up to the picturesque edge of a rocky hill overlooking the ocean. "Oh, wow." She breathed.

"I'll take that as a good sign. I suppose having no definite plan pays off." He said with a smile as he turned off the engine, but left the CD player on at a very low volume so that light streams of jazz intermingled with the sound of the waves crashing against rocks.

"Oh come on. You must have put at least a little planning into this." She said gesturing her hand to take in their surroundings.

"Well, I had an idea. Sometimes these ideas pan out and sometimes they fail." He explained with a smile.

"I see." She said with a smirk. "Do you often come up with extremely romantic ideas?" she asked.

"Occasionally, but I have many ideas that are not devoted to romance." He answered, taking another swig of coke.

"Really? What other types of ideas do you have?" she asked with her smirk still in place.

"Well, I have been known to create a damn fine Royal Meal." He said quickly getting out of the car and going to the trunk.

Rory watched from her seat as Tade pulled two large, brown, paper bags and a box of pizza out of the trunk. He gripped the two bags with his left arm, balanced the pizza box in his right hand, and closed the trunk with his right elbow. He laid the pizza on top of the trunk and began to take things out of the bags. He placed three Chinese food cartons, two cheeseburgers, and a bag of French fries beside the pizza. This was the perfect feast.

"I didn't know what you like so I just got everything." He explained while getting back into the drivers seat but rotating his body so as to face Rory.

"I like everything. This is wonderful." She said with a wide-eyed smile.

"So far I'm two for two in the successful idea department. Nice." He mockingly congratulated himself. "Alright let's dig in. I'm starving. I forgot to eat lunch today and now it's coming back to bite me in the ass." He said opening the pizza box and offering Rory a slice before taking his own.

"How can you forget to eat?" she asked incredulously as she took a bite of her pizza.

"I was painting and before I knew it I had to get ready for this." He said with a sweep of his hand.

"You paint?" she asked before she realized that it was a redundant question.

"Yeah, you know, every now and then. I was painting a mural on one of those walls in my room. They were just so empty that I couldn't stand it." He said with a shrug.

"What did you paint?" she asked.

"Rain." He answered with a grin. They continued to eat without saying anything for a minute before he had to hear her voice again. "Tell me something about yourself that very few people know." He said before he could change his mind about this request.

"I can't eat tic-tacs in odd numbers." She answered quickly while popping a French fry in her smiling mouth. "Now you." She ordered.

"I don't wear underwear." He replied and then mentally slapped himself until he noticed Rory's eyes unconsciously fly to his lap. "I saw that." He said with a smirk.

"What?" she asked with blushing cheeks although she already knew what he was referring to.

"The crotch glance. I saw it. I'm flattered." He said with a blushing smile of his own as he reached for the coke he had balanced on the dashboard.

"Well, you caught me off guard. I'm here talking about tic-tacs and suddenly you mention your underwear or lack there of. My eyes are going to dart places." She rambled until her words were cut off by Tade's thumb grazing her lips.

"Don't worry about it." He whispered. They smiled at each other and returned to their food for a moment before a question popped into Rory's head.

"So tell me about some of your failed ideas." She requested with twinkling eyes.

"Oh, there were so many I don't even know where to begin. I suppose my favorite failure was when I was fifteen. My mother had just moved to London and she wanted me to live with her there so she enrolled me in this horrific school right out of a Dickens novel. After three weeks I had had enough so I high-jacked a third grade class and a few members of the orchestra and took them to the roof." He started.

"That sounds creepy." She interjected.

"Yeah, I would think so too. It just shows how bad this school was that they would rather follow some strange kid to the roof than go to class. Anyway, I get them all up there and after a moment of telling them my idea we hook up the amps and start to play Pink Flyod's "Another Brick In The Wall" thus disturbing all classes in the building and a few of the surrounding buildings. It made the evening news." He explained.

"How would that count as a failure?" she asked in amazement.

"I didn't get kicked out of school. The next day I left my mother a note and got on a plane to New York." He said.

"Awesome." She let slip from her mouth. "What did you do when you got to New York?" she asked.

"I went to go live with my brother Essien and his boyfriend, Mark. They run a really successful salon and spa thing and they live in this great apartment in SoHo and they just let me stay.

"How did your mother react?" she asked.

"She was surprisingly understanding. Her only condition was that I had to go to a private school of her choice and call her every day." He finished.

"Wow." She breathed.

"It was rather cool. I'm sure you've done some spontaneous things." He coaxed.

"The only unplanned thing I ever did was to cut school and get on a bus to New York to chase after a boy I was in love with." She said this without a flicker of remorse. "I ended up missing my mother's graduation from business school and felt like crap for a long time after." She ended.

"Did you at least get what you went for?" he asked not really wanting the answer.

"Yeah, he came back, but it took us another year to get together because I was dating another guy. In the ended, the original boyfriend got married to some girl and the New York boy ran off to California without a word of goodbye. Spontaneous doesn't really work for me." She stated. From the finality in her voice he knew that she didn't still have feelings for these people so he didn't press the matter.

"You know we were probably in New York at the same time." He said as he finished the cheeseburger he had been eating. They both paused to think about this. They could have met years before. Would that have really made a difference?

"I keep forgetting that we just met." She said without realizing that he might not know what she was talking about. But he did. Their minds had followed the same train of though.

"I know. I feel like I've known you forever." He said with a grin. "Yet you're still a mystery to me." He added.

"Oh Really?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "You can ask me anything you want and I'll answer." She said before realizing that this might be a bad idea. "If you'll do the same." She quickly added.

"Alright, ladies first." He said pulling his legs into a crossed position.

"What are the names and ages of all your siblings?" she asked. She would start off simple.

"That's a simple one. Alright, let's see. My oldest brother is Akia. He's thirty-five. Then there's my sister Kamilah who's thirty-four. Then my sister Layla who's thirty-two. Then my brother Azizi, who's thirty. My sister Zahra who's twenty-nine. Then Essien is tenty-seven. Then my brothers Thembi and Dinari who are twenty-five. And then my brother Nyack who's twenty-four." He listed.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Although it is my turn to ask a question I will be a gentleman and answer you. I am twenty-one." When he saw the slight look of confusion on Rory's face he added, "I took a year off before college to live with Layla and her eleven year-old son, Tarek in Paris." A smirk crossed his face. "Now it's my turn. Let's see. You have no siblings. You live with your mother in Hicksville. You've had at least two serious boyfriends. Have you had other boyfriends?" he asked.

"No." she answered very relieved that it was an easy question. "You get another question." She added bravely.

"True. But I'll answer my own question first. Just so we're on the same page. I had a very serious girlfriend before I moved to London, but after I moved we lost touch for a while and the next time I saw her the sparks had gone. And I had a girlfriend in New York, but she turned out to be a big bitch." He said matter-of-factly. "Alright, it's time for the question. You know what it is and I feel like a dick for asking it, but if I don't I feel like you won't and then we'll never know. How many people have you had sex with?" he blurted. He assumed she'd had sex. It seemed that everyone had had sex by the time they were twenty these days. He knew he shouldn't assume, but he couldn't help it.

"None." She answered blushing.

"What?" he asked. He was slightly confused.

"I'm a virgin." She said very quietly with red cheeks.

"Oh." He knew he shouldn't assume things. Rory did look like a very pure girl, but he thought he might have been making it up. He felt an uncontrolled smile form on his lips as he looked at her in a new light. "That's nice." He kicked himself for sounding like a creep.

"It's stupid. I'm going on twenty and I just never got around to having sex. I probably should have just gotten it over with when I was in high school." She though aloud.

"Believe me, that would be a bad idea. I had sex way too early and it was awful. My girlfriend from back home and I had sex before I left for London and it sucked and I haven't had sex since." He explained without sounding patronizing. "Ok. You're turn." He added.

"Hm. I know about your parents and your siblings and your no underwear thing and the sex thing. So, do you believe in God?" she had no idea where that question came from.

"No." he answered. "I've seen to much to believe that one being created it all. You can't be an intelligent person and still believe in God." He stated.

"I don't believe in God either. It doesn't make sense. Because he either created humans to live their lives without thinking about him, and if that's the case, he failed. Or he created humans to worship him, and if that's the case, he failed there too. But God can't fail, so he can't actually exist." She rambled. "Do you know what I mean?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do." He answered.

"Your turn." She said.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked.

"Ever since I was thirteen I wanted to be a foreign correspondent, but I'm not really sure. I definitely want to write and I definitely want to travel, so foreign correspondence sounds like the perfect thing, but it can also be dangerous and I'm not really one for danger." She explained. "How about you?" she asked.

"Well, I don't have to worry about money so I'm really lucky that I can be whatever I want, but I'm not exactly sure I know what that is. I guess I want to find someone I love, live happily ever after, and have the option of writing, and painting, and singing. That sounds perfect to me." He said with a smile. "That sounds sort of like I want to become a househusband, but I really just want to be happy and I feel like once I accomplish that, everything else will work out just fine." He explained.

"That sounds nice." Was all she could think to say. He sounded so innocent when he said this.

"Your turn." He smiled.

"What's your favorite color?" she asked with a grin.

"White. I know that's not a color, but I love white because it is just the beginning. White doesn't have to stay white and it rarely does." He rationalized. "What's yours?" he asked.

"Blue. I have no profound reason for liking it. I guess it just reminds me of myself, which doesn't make sense, but I just feel most like myself when I'm around the color blue." She clarified. "Your turn." She added.

"What's your favorite word?" he asked.

"That's a hard one." She said.

"No it's not. If you think about all words in the English language there is only one that is perfect." He stated.

"Which one?" she asked.

"Pickle." He revealed.

"You're right." She said with wonderment.

"It's perfect in every way. It has a certain grace and beauty although it is equally bizarre. You can't say the word pickle without smiling." He explained with a smile. She giggled and a strand of her hair fell in front of her eyes. He reached out his hand to brush it away, but as he leaned in his lips took control and they touched her soft lips with a light flutter before he pulled away. Her eyes were still closed as he looked at her. They opened and he was struck numb by their beauty. Every time he saw them it was like lightning. Suddenly, he leapt out of the car and ran around to the passenger side door and opened it for a very confused Rory. "Follow me." He ordered. She complied and taking his hand, they ran down to the beach to look at the stars reflecting over the water. "What do you think of the stars?" he asked.

"They make me feel small." She answered immediately.

"You are small." He retorted. Rory looked up at him with a small pout. "Someone could just scoop you up in their arms and run away with you." He said as tossed her over his right shoulder in one graceful maneuver.

"No fair. Put me down." She squealed, not sounding at all frightened or as though she'd like to be put down.

"My dear lady, your wish is my command." He said while gently placing her on the sand. She looked slightly disappointed until Tade fell to his knees beside her. She looked up into his shining eyes and smiled. He leaned down and kissed her. This time with full compliance from his lips, his heart, and his brain, and his libido too.

The kiss started soft, but gradually heated up. His tongue smoothed her bottom lip and she opened her mouth to meet it. He tasted like sugar, probably from the coke. It was intoxicating. This was the best taste she had ever experienced. She kissed him harder in an attempt to keep this flavor with her forever. He followed her lead. She tasted clean and sweet. He didn't know how else to describe it. It made him feel special to be kissing this girl. He pulled away for a moment to look into her eyes. Lightning. He felt rejuvenated and leaned back in to kiss under her jaw. She let out a small giggle that transformed into a gasp of delight as his lips traveled down to her collarbone. She let her hands glide up to his hair. It was very short and felt rough under her fingers. She liked it. His hand slid up the outside of her thigh and rested at her hip. His strong fingers stroked the area of skin that was not covered by her shirt. Her right hand skimmed across his back and under his jacket. His muscles rippled under her touch and she smiled. His kissed traveled back to her smiling lips and he smiled into the kiss. After on last peck, he pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. They both breathed heavily, until their breaths turned into laughter. Tade kissed her cheek lightly and then lay down beside Rory on the sand. He put his right arm under her head and let his left arm lie across her stomach. She leaned into his side, basking in his soft warmth.

"Thanks for dinner." She whispered.

"It was my pleasure." He responded in a husky breath.

"Feel free not to plan more evenings like this any time you want." She smiled.

"Sounds good to me." He whispered before they both turned back to look at the stars.

A/N: This wasn't a particularly funny chapter, but it needed to be there. I hope it made you smile anyway.


	7. meeting the gilmores, pt 1

Lightning

A/N: I'm sorry this took longer than I expected to post. Thanks to those who reviewed. You are my heroes.

Chapter Seven: Meeting the Gilmores, Pt. 1

Rory and Tade had spent almost everyday of the last three weeks with each other since the night at the beach. They had told each other their life stories, leaving out no details if they could help it. They felt an overwhelming comfort and safety in the other. It just felt right.

It was a chilly, Sunday afternoon and they were staying warm in Tade's room. They lay curled up on his bed, under his down comforter, munching on M&M's and Cap'n Crunch, watching Mary Poppins.

"I have a theory," he began with a gesture of his hand towards the television before he tossed an M&M into his mouth. Rory looked at him with smiling anticipation. Tade had a theory about every Disney movie. Not pretentious theories. No. They were just little thoughts that he liked to share with her. "That Mary Poppins, that umbrella guy, and the carpet bag are symbols that represent the Holy Trinity. You see? Obviously, Mary Poppins is Jesus. The umbrella dude is God. And the carpet bag is the Holy Ghost, because no one knows what that one's about." He explained with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "You could even go as far as to say that Bert is Mary Magdalene. It all works." He turned to Rory as he finished. She was grinning at him. Like she knew something he didn't. "What?" he asked with a furrow of his brow although his lips were smiling.

"I love you." Rory stated. She just had to say it. It was the truth. She loved him. She felt like she always had. Even before they met, she loved him. She looked at his sparkling eyes, the creases at their edges, created by his broad smile, his glowing cheekbones, his nose that made her feel like she knew him as a child. She loved him. She loved his passion that he saved only for her. She loved the way he could wear Prada pants with a K-Mart shirt without thinking twice about it. She loved the way he sang to her. She loved the way he refused to make lists and just laughed at her instead. She loved that he could smile away her fears. She loved him.

"I love you too." He said with a grin too big for his face. He did love her. She was the most important thing in his life. He hadn't realized that before, but she was. He couldn't go a single day without speaking to her. He loved that his clothes smelled like her shampoo. He loved that she kept lists at his dorm. There was one in the bathroom for drug store needs, one near the fridge for food items, and one near the TV for books, movies, and Cds. He never used any of these lists, but he loved to see her handwriting all around his room. He loved that they could make fun of each other without ever hurting the other's feelings. He loved the way she lost all her fears when they were together. He loved her.

Later that night, Rory walked back to her room with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. She was in love. Some of the people she passed gave her a knowing look, others a look of disapproval because she was happy and they weren't. She didn't care. She was in love.

She kicked open the door to her suite and twirled over to the couch where Paris sat reading a book, purposely ignoring her. Eventually the beams from Rory's smile could no longer be disregarded and Paris put her book down.

"Are you going to tell me what's causing this solar powered smile of yours?" Paris asked with a practiced glare.

"He loves me. And I love him. I said it first, which was strange, but he reciprocated the emotion and it was perfect and he's perfect." Rory gushed.

"You only just shared those three words with each other? I assumed it had come up before. I mean you do spend every day with each other." She said.

"I feel like I loved him all along, but I don't know, the only other person I ever said I loved was Dean and that was no piece of cake." Rory explained.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you have some weird emotional flaw. I like it. It's nice to know that you're not perfect. It keeps me sane." Paris said with a smile.

"Well, your sanity can be argued and I guess my damage is healed because I had no trouble telling Tade that I love him. Because he's perfect and I feel perfect with him. I have to go call my mother." Rory replied getting up and heading for her room.

She plopped down on her bed and took out her cell phone and pressed the one button.

"Al's Pizza, this is Doris, how may I service you?" Lorelai answered.

"I'd like two large pizzas with everything except anchovies and vegetables." Rory responded to humor her mother.

"I'm sorry but we seems to be out of sauce and cheese and bread and we don't know how to work the oven so it seems that we will not be able to make your pizza." Lorelai replied with a smile.

"Well it's a good thing I wasn't actually calling for a pizza." Rory said with a smile she reserved for her mother.

"Well you couldn't be calling to speak to little old me. I mean I haven't heard from you in two days. After all, I am just your mother. Why should you bother to call me? You've found someone else. A prince no less! What good am I anymore? I've already passed on the DNA and taught you everything I know except for one or two things that you're not old enough to know, unless I'm out of loop in that department too. I don't know anymore. You don't tell me anything." Lorelai rambled.

"He told me he loved me!" Rory cut in on her mother.

"Really?" Lorelai responded with excitement, completely forgetting about her previous babbling.

"Well, I said it first, but he said it back and it was wonderful." She spewed.

"Wait, you said it first? Wow." Lorelai thought aloud.

"Why is that wow?" Rory asked.

"No reason. Except of course for the fact that you are the same person who let her first love break up with her just because you were afraid of saying those infamous three words." Her mother said with her raised eyebrows reflected in the tone of her voice.

"This is different. It wasn't scary. It was just the truth." Rory responded in a dreamy manner.

"So when am I going to get to meet this boy?" Lorelai asked.

"Eventually." She responded vaguely. She didn't know why she didn't want to bring Tade home. It was just so special when they were alone. She wasn't ready to bring in the scrutiny of the rest of the world.

"And when's that?" Lorelai prodded.

"You go past Soon, but stop shortly before Never." Rory explained with a smile.

"You think you're so clever don't you?" Lorelai chided.

"Just clever enough." She retorted.

"Let's see how far that cleverness gets you at dinner tomorrow. Your grandparents have requested our attendance at a "traditional Friday Night Meal". Emily's words, not mine." Lorelai replied.

"Do you have any idea what may have instigated grandma's desire for such a meal? We haven't had any since they told me they were splitting up." Rory asked.

"I may have accidentally mentioned that I rarely see you when my mother caught me on a particularly lonely afternoon." Lorelai answered hesitantly.

"What are you talking about? I see you all the time. I came home two weeks ago." Rory argued.

"Hey that's a long time. I miss you." Lorelai said seriously.

"I'm sorry. Well, I guess I'll see you at dinner tomorrow." Rory said slightly ashamed that she hadn't thought about her mother's feelings.

"Oh. There's one more thing. Please don't hate me." Lorelai began.

"That's never a good way to prepare a person for news." Rory joked.

"I may have let slip that you, my wonderful daughter who I love more than life itself, have a new boyfriend." Lorelai coward away from the phone as though she was expecting a hand to fly out and slap her.

"Mom!" Rory half shouted half whined.

"I'm sorry! I didn't tell her anything about him. I just mentioned his existence. I'm really sorry. I'll buy you ice cream and cookies and shoes to make up for it." Lorelai promised.

"Well I guess it's not that bad that she knows." Rory conceded.

"There's one more thing. Just a little, tiny something else." Lorelai prepared.

"Uh-oh.

"She wants you to bring Tade to dinner tomorrow." Lorelai rushed.

"Oh crap." Rory moaned. Apparently her and Tade's solitude would have to end. She knew it would happen at some point. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Are you mad?" Lorelai asked with audible fear in her voice.

"No. It's ok. It was bound to happen sooner or later." Rory grumbled.

"That's the spirit. Hey, maybe the two of you can come spend the weekend in Stars Hollow after dinner." Lorelai suggested with a huge grin.

"Maybe." Rory responded vaguely. Maybe.

The next evening Rory and Tade were loading up his convertible with overnight bags. Tade even seemed somewhat excited to be meeting her family. He had a natural ability to charm strangers that he hadn't had a chance to exercise recently. He was particularly eager to meet Lorelai. He had heard so much about her and couldn't wait to meet her in person. She was almost like a celebrity in his eyes. Why wouldn't she be? She had spawned the love of his life. She could be nothing if not amazing.

Rory, however, seemed rather nervous. She had explained her worries about the effect this meeting would have on their relationship and had warned him about the large chance of some race-oriented comments, but he was fine with it. He knew everything would work out. He just smiled at her. She smiled back, but with a reservation that Tade could sense. So, he did the only thing he could think to do in this circumstance. He began to sing. Not just any song either, but a special song that was very important to them.

"I can show you the world. Shining, shimmering, splendid. Tell me princess, now when did you last let your heart decide? I can open your eyes. Take you wonder by wonder. Over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride." He began. "A whole new world. A new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no or where to go or say we're only dreaming." He belted in his strong, sandy voice. He nudged her with his elbow in a gentle way as her cue to join in. she sang with him. Only him. She wasn't embarrassed about not being very talented. Talent wasn't the point.

"A whole new world." Rory sang in her quiet, gentle voice. "A dazzling place I never knew. But when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear that now I'm in a whole new world with you.

"Now I'm in a whole new world," he cut in with his loud voice as he hit the part that Rory loved.

"Unbelievable sights. Indescribable feelings. Soaring, tumbling, reeling through an endless diamond sky. A whole new world." She was smiling by now in anticipation of her favorite parts of the song.

"Don't you dare close your eyes!" Tade whispered loudly. He knew this part always made Rory laugh.

"A hundred thousand things to see." She sang.

"Hold your breath it gets better." He sang at the same time.

"I'm like a shooting star. I've come so far. I can't go back to where I used to be." Her voice had gotten louder by this point. Full of laughter and confidence. Everything was going to work out.

"A whole new world." He bellowed.

"Every turn a surprise." She giggled.

"And new horizons to receive." He smiled.

"Every moment gets better." She sang sincerely as she reached out to stroke the nape of Tade's neck.

"I'll chase them anywhere. There's time to spare. Let me share this whole new world with you." They sang together.

"A whole new world." He sang into the wind with a grin.

"A whole new world." She followed.

"A thrilling change." He laughed.

"A wondrous place." She smiled.

"For you and me." They shouted together intentionally off key as they drifted into fits of laughter. This was his secret weapon. It had taken a few tries in the beginning to get her to sing with him, but eventually she gave in because she realized that there was no reason not to sing with him. It was nice.

They turned into the driveway of the elder Gilmore's house a few minutes later, still smiling. Everything would be fine. How could they not love him? They got out of the car just as Lorelai was pulling up in the Jeep. Rory and Tade waited for her to get out of the car so that they could have separate introductions. Lorelai came around the car to greet the couple in front of her. Tade looked at the tall woman with the bright blue eyes and the dazzling smile. She was exactly the way he had imagined. Coffee cup and all.

"Tade, this is my mother, Lorelai. Mom, this is Tade." Rory introduced with a smile.

"Nice to meet you Lorelai." Tade said with twinkling eyes as he shook her hand. He knew not to call her Ms. Gilmore, Rory had warned him.

"You too Tade." She said with a smile of her own as she looked him over. He was dressed in black, pinstripe, dress pants, and a white cashmere sweater. She looked impressed. Her eyes widened as she looked over at his car. "So rumor has it you're a prince." Lorelai said with a smirk. "Does the title come with a hot car?" she asked.

"I am indeed a prince. And unfortunately, no, the title does not come with a lady pleasing mobile, but I'm having that looked into by my royal servants." He joked. Rory was glowing as she watched her boyfriend impress her mother.

"Well if that gets fixed I'll have to see if you have an older brother I could meet." Lorelai joked.

"It just so happens that I have six." He responded with a smirk as they neared the front door.

"I like this one." Lorelai said in a loud whisper to Rory.

"I do too." Rory said as she slipped her arm around Tade's waist.

"I just hope he survives Emily and Richard." Lorelai said ringing the doorbell.

"Me too mom. Me too." Rory responded as the front door opened.

The look on Emily's face was almost enough to make the entire night worthwhile. In one moment it went from a practiced smile, to surprise, to shock, to distrust, to a charitable, politically correct smile.

"Come in. Come in." She said ushering the small group into the living room. "Richard, look who's here." She said with her huge, fake grin to the large, older man fixing himself a drink.

"I know who's here, Emily." He said turning to face the group. He looked slightly perplexed for a moment, but one could almost see his eyes shrug as he walked over to extend his hand to Tade.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I almost forgot." Rory rushed. She had been so absorbed in watching her grandparents that she had forgotten to introduce Tade. "Grandpa, grandma, this is my boyfriend Tade Ntekim. Tade, these are my grandparents, Richard and Emily Gilmore." She said with a smile towards Tade who seemed to be holding up well.

"Mr. Gilmore." Tade shook Richard's hand firmly. "It's nice to finally meet you." He said with a nod that meant nothing.

"Mrs. Gilmore." He said with a softer shake. "You have a lovely home." He added although he knew that she didn't live there anymore.

"Thank you." She replied with a tight smile.

"Can I offer you anything to drink?" Richard asked the group for lack of anything else to say.

"I'll have a martini, Dad." Lorelai said her first words.

"I'd love a white wine if you have it." Tade said. Everyone was silent for a moment. Rory looked to her mother who stifled a laugh. Tade looked to Rory and shrugged his shoulders slightly. She almost laughed out loud.

"Will you be driving later, young man?" Richard asked with a stern face. Rory cringed. She was positive Tade had never been referred to as "Young man" in his life.

"No. I promised Rory she could drive my car tonight." He answered as he attempted a charming smile.

"What kind of automobile do you drive?" Richard asked in an interrogatory tone.

"A '57 Corvette." Tade answered nonchalantly. Richard looked impressed for a fleeting moment. Lorelai smiled at her daughter.

"Why don't we move into the dining room?" Emily interjected. The group walked to the dining room. Tade couldn't help but notice that he had never gotten his wine. He took a seat beside Rory and to the right of Emily.

"So, Tade, you're a Sophmore and you're twenty-one, explain." Lorelai directed. She already knew almost everything about Tade because Rory had told her, but she felt that it was time for her parents to be impressed by his past. Rory smiled at her mother gratefully and Tade sent her a warm smile.

"Well, Lorelai, after high school I took a year off to live in Paris with my sister and her eleven year-old son." He explained.

"How old is your sister?" Emily asked before she had a chance to wonder if this was a rude question.

"Thirty-two. She's only my half-sister, from my father's first marriage." He clarified.

"Do you have other siblings?" Emily asked.

"Yes. I have nine older siblings." He answered as he smiled into his forkful of food as looks of amazement ran across Emily and Richard's faces.

"Wow. Are you close with all of them?" Lorelai asked. She was actually very fascinated by this.

"It's difficult because we're scattered all over the world, but I try to keep in touch." He replied.

"Did your father move around a lot?" Richard asked trying to keep out the sound of distain.

" No. No. He stays at home. It's just his children who relocated." Tade responded shrugging off the distinct sound of distain in Richard's voice. He was used to hearing bad things about his father from the press at home. He threw a smile to Rory to show that he was ok with the questioning. She was ready to jump in and save him at any moment.

"Where is it that you're from?" Emily asked.

"Sable D'Or. It's a small country near Nigeria." He answered.

"Oh." Emily seemed oddly relieved to hear this. Almost as though a black person from Africa was better than a black person from America.

"What is it your father does for a living?" Richard finally asked. Lorelai and Rory both sat back in their seats with expectant grins on their faces.

"Oh." Tade paused as he took a sip of his water. "He's the king of Sable D'Or.

"Pardon me?" Richard looked at a loss.

"He's the king, grandpa." Rory reiterated.

"And Tade's the prince." Lorelai added with a partial smirk. She had been waiting for that moment all day.

"I'm just one of the princes, Lorelai. It's no big deal. All of my brothers and sisters are in line for the crown before me." Tade added with a humble wave of his hand.

"What does the position of prince entail?" Emily asked after a brief moment of regrouping.

"My family acts mostly as a symbol of ancestral power before the French took over for a while. The country has a prime minister and the such. We're pretty much like the royal family in Great Britain, but without all the international publicity. As the prince I have to do a lot of schmoozing with political figures and royalty from neighboring countries. Stuff like that." He explained.

"Tell them about the time you had to take the prime minister's son camping." Rory requested with a smile and look of excitement. Her grandparents were in shock and Tade was still as charming as ever.

"Rory loves this story, I don't know why." He began. "About six years ago, my father talked three of my brothers and me into taking the prime minister's son on a camping trip in the Sahara. Just the edge that's in the country's boundaries, but still the desert. Well, this tub of lard wanted to do things traditionally. Camels and all. So that's what we did. It was me, my brothers, the fat kid, and two bodyguards all on camels in the desert. On the second day we decided to do some sand boarding down the dunes when Mr. Brilliant tries to impress us with a fancy move and he falls and breaks his leg. It's a horrible mess. He can't move. He's crying. The bodyguards don't know what to do. My brothers sure aren't helping. And I only have one band-aid. I'm the only person with any first aid experience because I took a course so that I could volunteer at an orphanage. The cell phones don't work, because I mean, if you can't get service in certain places in New York, there's no way you're getting service in the Sahara. Eventually, I have to get on a camel and race back to the nearest town, commandeer a truck, drive back to the sorry group in the desert and drive the broken boy home without a license. Needless to say he never went camping again." He finished with an animated smile. Rory beamed with pride as she looked at the astonished faces around her. He really was a prince.

The dinner went on in much the same manner until they were finally able to extricate themselves from the house. They gave polite good-byes and promised to get together again in the near future. Once outside the door, Rory gave Tade a hug and they all began to laugh.

"That was the most fun I've ever had in that building." Lorelai said, wiping a tear of laughter from her cheek.

"Mom, you're horrible." Rory reprimanded before turning to Tade. "Are you ok? You did a very nice job. You're very polite." she admired as she slid her hand over his neck.

"Yeah, did you see the looks on my parents' faces. It was like my birthday and Christmas all at once." Lorelai began laughing again.

"It was actually quite fun. I've never been called "young man" by anyone except my mother. I'll have to call her." He said with a grin as he wrapped his arms around Rory's waist.

"You may need to have a talk with another mother tonight as well." Lorelai said. The laughter had gone. She was attempting to be serious. She still hadn't really talked with Tade.

"Uh-oh." Rory whispered loudly in Tade's direction. "My mother wants to talk to you." She said with exaggeratedly wide eyes.

"I'll wait till we get to Stars Hollow though. There could be spies at every corner near this place. Let's get out of here." Lorelai joked as she headed towards the Jeep.

"Sounds good to me." Tade said with a smile as he walked to the passenger side of the Corvette and opened the door for Rory. "M'Lady, your chariot awaits." He said with a small bow. Rory got in and exchanged a small smile with her mother before the Jeep drove away closely followed by the Corvette.

After driving for a few minutes, Tade noticed Rory's eyes getting droopy.

"Tired?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah." Rory answered with a sigh. "All that worrying made me sleepy." She breathed into the seat cushion.

"It's a horrible habit you have. Worrying. You should really give it up." He said as he brushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I'll give it up tomorrow. Cold turkey. I promise." Rory mumbled. "Will you sing to me?" she asked after a moment.

"Of course. What do you want me to sing?" he asked.

"Anything." She sighed.

After a moment of silence Tade began to sing softly, in a private voice, just for Rory. "Da da da da da da da da. Da da da da da da da da. If there's anything that you want, if there's anything I can do, just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you. I've got everything that you want, like a heart that's oh, so true. Just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you. I got arms that long to hold you and keep you by my side. I got lips that long to kiss you and keep you satisfied, ooooh. If there's anything that you want, if there's anything I can do, just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you." He hummed the tune he knew. "From me," he sang the chords of the guitar. "To you. Just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you. I got arms that long to hold you and keep you by my side. I got lips that long to kiss you and keep you satisfied, oooh. If there's anything that you want, if there's anything I can do, just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you. To you. To you. To you." He drifted into a soft hum as he looked over to see a sleeping Rory by his side. She was so beautiful. He felt lucky every time he laid eyes on her. He loved her and she loved him back. He would go through any number of awkward conversations and inhumane dinners if that was what she needed. He would do anything for her.

After a few more silent minutes of driving, Tade pulled into the Gilmore driveway behind Lorelai. He turned to rouse Rory from her sleep, but found he couldn't bring himself to disturb the peace he could see on her face. Instead, he walked around the car and gingerly lifted her into his arms. She moaned softly as he arranged his grip on her. The feel of her warmth in his arms combined with that little sound almost made him die he wanted to kiss her so badly, but her mother was watching him from the porch. He took a breath to calm himself and carried her into the house. Lorelai directed him towards her bedroom. He could sense that she was staying nearby so he took Rory into her room, laid her on the bed, removed her shoes, wrapped a comforter around her, and gave her a light kiss on the forehead. He turned off the light and left the bedroom door slightly ajar as he walked into the kitchen to join Lorelai.

"Are you ready for that talk now?" Tade asked, trying his best not to mock.

"I guess." Lorelai replied unenthusiastically as she took a seat.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the reluctant one here." He said with a small smile as he too a seat across from her.

"Let's just get this over with. I like you. Rory loves you and you love Rory. I can see it in the way that you look at each other, the way you act around each other. It's nice, but it can be blinding. I don't want you guys to get hurt and because Rory's my daughter, I'll take her side no matter what, so if you hurt her, I will kill you." Lorelai calmly stated.

"Lorelai, if I hurt her, I will kill myself." He said honestly.

"And take away all my fun?" Lorelai asked jokingly.

"Tell you what, if it ever comes up, I'll video tape it for you." He said with a smile.

"Works for me." She said standing up from the table. "Now let me show you where you'll be sleeping." She said walking into the living room with Tade behind her. "The royal couch." She exclaimed. "I laid out some blankets earlier today, but there are more in the closet if you get cold. There's a spare key under the turtle on the porch if you need to run out to your car to get your bags. Goodnight." Lorelai said with a smile as she walked up the stairs.

After running out to get his and Rory's bags, he changed into his pajama pants, took out a book, and read until midnight at which point, he took out his cell phone and pressed the number one button.

"Hi mom." He spoke quietly into the phone.

"Shombay! How have you been? How's that girl?" his mother asked in her steady voice.

"Rory's fine. I'm wonderful. I'm actually staying at Rory's house right now. Her mother threatened to kill me if I inflicted any harm on Rory and her grandfather called me "young man." I feel like scum and I love it. I'm thinking that I should start wearing very baggy pants so that I can get total strangers to glare at me." He joked.

"Perhaps if you move to the Midwest they might even start throwing garbage at you." She teased somewhat distractedly.

"Wouldn't that be great?" He mockingly sighed.

"Shombay, can I call you back? I just got to the gallery and everyone is incompetent." She excused.

"Oh, yeah, no problem. Talk to you later mom." He said somewhat dejectedly.

"Goodbye." He heard the phone click and he flipped his cell phone shut. He took off his shirt and lay down on the couch.

Rory had woken up and walked to her door in time to hear the disappointment in Tade's voice when he hung up with his mom. She had changed into her pajamas and headed out to talk to him.

Tade heard the soft padding of Rory's feet on the floor as she came into the living room. He opened his eyes to take in her slightly disheveled appearance as she sat down on the coffee table across from him.

"I'm a bad host." She said quietly.

"I like your tactic. Fall asleep so that your guest is left alone with your mother. Nice." He joked.

"Oh no. Was she mean? I thought she liked you. Did she threaten to kill you?" she asked with knotted eyebrows.

"There was one death threat, but we reached an understanding and I think it's all ok." He reassured. As he sat up Rory's eyes couldn't help but roam over his exposed chest. She loved his chest. Tade watched as her eyes darted across his body. He loved her eyes. Suddenly they were kissing. Neither knew who initiated the kiss, but there it was. It was becoming heated as they tumbled back onto the couch. Tade's hands hoisted Rory on top of his chest while her hands grazed over his dark torso. All the while their lips intermixed harsh and soft kisses in a demonstration of their passion. After a short time the two pulled apart for air and they quickly remembered where they were.

"Oh, wow. We should not be doing this with my mother so near by." Rory managed between breaths.

"Yeah, that's probably a bad idea." He agreed.

"I should go back to my room." She said, pulling away slowly.

"Do you have to? " he pouted as he brought his arms around her waist, pulling her back onto the couch.

"A few more minutes." Rory sighed contentedly as she curled into his body.

"Sounds good to me." He replied as they snuggled together. Each had his or her hands wrapped around the other. Tade, with his hands resting dangerously close to her behind, and Rory with one hand holding the back of his neck while the other gently stroked the long scars on his back that she loved so much.

"If there's anything that you want, if there's anything I can do, just call my name and I'll send it along with love from me to you." He sang softly into her hair. She smiled into his chest and they fell asleep in each other's arms.

A/N: The songs in this chapter were "A Whole New World" from Aladdin and "From Me To You" by the Beatles.


	8. meeting the gilmores, pt 2

Lightning

A/N: Sorry for not updating. I was in Florida.

A/N2: I was just rereading the first chapter and I realized that my description of how to pronounce Tade looked rather unclear. It's more like Todd-eh. If you've been saying it incorrectly in your brain, I apologize.

A/N3: I love reviews. And I love everyone who has reviewed and will continue to review. Thank you.

A/N4: This chapter is PG13

Chapter Eight: Meeting the Gilmores, Pt. 2

The next morning Rory awoke to find herself staring into Tade's neck. She liked waking up like this. Even the fact that she couldn't feel her left arm didn't bother her. She gave him a light kiss on the shoulder and began to trace the scars on his back again. Her fingertips tingled with sleep and skimmed gently over his back.

He woke up to the sensation of delicate fingers tracing his scars. He breathed in the smell of Rory beside him. He loved waking up like this. The fact that his right arm was asleep didn't matter. He slid his hand down to take hold of her behind in one quick movement. He heard her gasp into his neck and he smiled into her hair.

"Good morning to you too." Rory joked as she pulled her head up to face him. His lips were full with sleep and she became entranced. At the speed of light she bent down to attack his lips. Tongues became a component and legs got tangled as the kiss progressed. The distant sound of a throat being cleared broke the moment. They froze for a second before turning to locate the sound. They looked across the room with hesitation and guilt evident on their faces as they were met with the sight of a less than thrilled and somewhat embarrassed Lorelai.

"Hi mom." Rory cringed. "Tade, the bathroom is just past my mother and to the left. I suggest you make yourself scarce for a bit." She advised in a soft whisper. Tade quickly, but gently untangled himself from Rory, bent to grab his t-shirt and overnight bag, and headed to the bathroom with a slight nod of greeting in Lorelai's direction. Rory noticed her mother noticing his rather ominous scars as he gathered his belongings. She hadn't felt a need to mention these marks to her mother before, but she supposed it would come up later. When she heard the door shut she stood, pulled her shirt down to cover her exposed midriff, and led her mother into the kitchen.

"Well that was awkward." Lorelai broke the silence and poured them some coffee.

"You have no idea." Rory said with a shy smile.

"Were you there all night?" Lorelai asked, trying to keep an air of nonchalance in her voice.

"I woke up a little after midnight and heard the end of his phone call with his mom. He sounded sad so I went to check on him and we fell asleep. That's it." She explained.

"That's it?" Lorelai asked skeptically.

"Give or take a few minutes of making out. That's it." Rory admitted with blushing cheeks.

"Good. I don't think I could take it if you had sex on my couch." Lorelai half joked.

"Mom!" Rory's blush deepened.

"What? I'm just being realistic. Sex happens. I just don't want it happening on my couch. That's much too icky." Lorelai justified.

"Icky?" Rory questioned until she received a pointed look from her mother. "Yeah, that would be icky." She admitted. What she was really wondering, however, was whether or not her mother had just given her permission to have sex with Tade or if she had just imagined it. Her thoughts were cut short by her mother though.

"So what was the deal with those impressive scars?" Lorelai asked with brimming curiosity.

"I'll have him tell you the story over breakfast. Are we going to Luke's?" Rory asked. Her mother blushed almost invisibly and her eyes held an inward smile.

"Yeah, um, of course." She said with slight difficulty. Tade walked into the kitchen fully dressed at that point. Rory decided she would get to the bottom of the Luke situation later. "Why don't we get dressed so we can get some breakfast?" Lorelai suggested to Rory. "Tade, stop necking with my daughter on my couch and there's coffee in the pot. Help yourself." She added with a smile.

"Will do, and I don't drink coffee, but thanks anyway." He said. Lorelai stared at him like he was an alien and Rory just shook her head.

"I'm a freak. I know. Carry on." Tade said and waved Lorelai and Rory off to get ready.

Twenty minutes later they were walking down the street in the direction of Luke's. Tade was drawing stares that ranged from discreet to blatant from those they passed. He didn't even bat an eyelash. He just wrapped his fingers around Rory's and continued to walk in his steady, graceful gate.

"You'd think the people in this town had never seen a black person before." Lorelai snorted.

"I'm really sorry about all the staring. I had hoped they would act like human beings for once." Rory apologized.

"It's ok. I'm used to getting stares. Mind you, in Sable no one gives a crap that I'm black, it's usually the royalty thing that gets them, but staring is staring and I'm cool with it." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Do you see what I was telling you about?" Rory asked her mother as though Tade wasn't there.

"I know. Amazing." Lorelai responded flabbergasted.

"Talking about me like I'm not here! I could have you beheaded for that." He said bringing his hand to his heart.

"Really?" Lorelai asked gullibly.

"No." he answered as he opened the door to Luke's to let Rory and Lorelai in before him.

The room went almost completely silent. Someone dropped a fork somewhere. The three looked at the gaping faces before them. Rory took her cue from Tade, shrugged her shoulders, and lead them to the counter where Luke had his back turned while he refilled the coffee maker.

"Lucas, your customers are rather rude." Lorelai informed him with a special smile.

"Yup. They're slobs too." Luke said with an uncharacteristic smile in his voice as he turned around. He didn't look even the slightest bit fazed when he saw Tade. "Hey, Rory, long time no see. Who's your friend?" he asked.

"This is my boyfriend, Tade Ntekim. Tade, this is Luke Danes." Rory introduced.

"It's nice to finally meet the famous Luke." Tade said shaking Luke's hand.

"Sorry about the people here. They're a bunch of inbred loonies." He excused as he shook Tade's hand. As if on cue Kirk walked in at this moment.

"Speaking of the devil." Lorelai mumbled under her breath.

"Luke, I'd like two glasses of water, three pieces of toast, and a piece of bacon to go please." Kirk ordered as he took a seat at the counter. "Lorelai. Rory." He said with a nod of greeting. "A newcomer, tell me, what is the African American view of our little town." He requested. Lorelai and Rory choked on their coffee, Luke shook his head, and Tade laughed.

"I see you're not someone to beat around the bush." Tade said as he scratched his eyebrow as something to do.

"No. I've never been one for nature." Kirk stated.

"Uh, anyway, I can't really answer your question because I'm not an African American. I'm just African." He explained.

"Oh, Pity." Kirk said taking the food Luke had just brought out and leaving the Diner.

"Wow. You didn't lie." Tade said quietly to Rory.

"You can't make up characters as crazy as the ones in this town." She said as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder.

"Anyway, what can I get you guys?" Luke asked.

"I'll have a vat of coffee and French toast please." Lorelai ordered.

"Make that two vats of coffee and I'll have waffles with a side of bacon." Rory ordered.

"You're both going to die." Luke interjected. "Do you drink coffee like these two?" Luke asked Tade.

"No. I don't' drink coffee at all." Tade smirked at the disgusted noises coming from Lorelai and Rory.

"Finally, someone who isn't crazy. What can I get you?" Luke asked.

"I'd like chocolate chip pancakes, an order of French fries, and a coke." Tade ordered with a smile.

"I was wrong. You're all nuts." Luke muttered as he ripped the sheet of paper off his order pad and walked into the kitchen.

"You might not have the coffee thing down, but the rest of your appetite is almost up to Gilmore level." Lorelai commended.

"I try. My mother would kill me if she knew how I ate." He responded.

"I hear you have a young mother too, what's she like?" Lorelai asked.

"Well, she may be young in years, but she is definitely old in spirit. She's always been very wise and powerful and fearless. She's a tiny woman with a long braid down her back. She's one of few people in this world who can scare the crap out of me." He described.

"Oh, that reminds me, tell my mother about how you got the scars on your back." Rory interposed.

"Yeah, you probably saw them. They look rather frightening. Rory loves them. Anyway, when I was eight, I adopted a lion cub. He was a tiny little ball of fur that I found on one of my travels. My mother told me it was a bad idea to take it home, but in the end she let me learn my own lesson. So I took him home, named him Frank, and became very attached. He was great, but soon he got bigger and on one fateful day I went to see him and he attacked. He just leapt right at me. I had never been so scared in my short life as I was at that moment. I felt his claws rip into my back and the blood start to drip down my body and I looked up to see him about to lung at my neck, when out of nowhere my mother dove through the air and tackled the lion to the ground. She knocked Frank unconscious and carried my blood-soaked body to the hospital. Two pints of blood and 108 stitches later and I was as good as new." He finished. Rory was smiling like a child, Lorelai stared at him with her mouth slightly opened, and Luke, who had come by with their food and been captivated by the story, stood frozen in amazement.

"Get this: Tade, what's your favorite kind of animal?" Rory set up for his answer.

"Lions." He answered with a grin.

"Kid, you're crazy." Luke stated.

"Just crazy enough to get me a Gilmore." Tade replied with a smirk.

At this moment Miss Patty came barging through the diner door with her cell phone in hand. Her eyes immediately darted to Tade and she headed towards him.

"Looks like word got out about your man." Lorelai mumbled to Rory.

"Hi Rory, who's this stud?" Miss Patty asked as she got very close to Tade.

"Miss Patty, this is my boyfriend, Tade. Tade, this is Miss Patty." She introduced. Tade's eyes widened when he heard who was standing so close to him. He had heard stories about this woman.

"Pleasure." She let the words roll off her tongue in what she thought was a flirtatious manner. "Are you a Yale man?" she asked.

"Yes. I just transferred this year from the University of Southern California." He answered with a charming smile although there was some hesitation in his eyes.

"Are you from California?" she tried to mask her curiosity behind her husky voice.

"No. I'm from Africa, just south of the Sahara." He answered again with some hesitation although the smile remained in place.

"Oh." Miss Patty looked as though she had made a triumphant discovery. "Well, it was very nice meeting you Tade. Goodbye girls." She said before whisking out of the diner.

"So that was Miss Patty." He said mostly to himself.

"Yup." Rory agreed.

"Huh." Was all he could say.

"Yup." Rory said. They sat and finished their food exchanging more tales until Lorleai's cell phone rang.

"Take it outside, Lorelai!" Luke shouted from the kitchen where he had gone to hide when he saw Miss Patty coming.

"I'm leaving!" Lorelai shouted without moving. "Hello?" she spoke into her phone. "Yeah, I'll be right there." She said reluctantly after the garbled voice on the other end of the phone had spoken. She flipped her phone closed and turned to face the couple beside her. "That was Sookie. She's having a breakdown because apparently some guy locked himself out of his room, Michel is being himself, and she has to finish with the brunch crowd." She explained. "I have to go. I'm sorry I won't get to hear more stories, but I guess this gives you two some time to walk around town." Lorelai added.

"There's always more time for stories Lorelai. And I'd love to get a tour of this place." He assured.

"Don't worry mom. I've got it under control. Maybe we'll stop by the inn later." Rory reassured.

"Alright. I'll see you later." She said walking to the door. "Uh, bye Luke!" she called in a somewhat strange voice before walking out the door.

"So what do you want to do today?" Rory asked Tade.

"Well I'd like the grand tour of course." He answered with a smile.

"That won't take all day. That won't take an hour. We need something else too." She explained.

"I'm sure we can think of something to do as we go along." He said taking out his wallet to pay.

"What are you doing?" she asked looking at the wallet.

"Paying." He answered with a small laugh.

"You're my guest. You can't pay." She said with a crinkled forehead.

"But you let me sleep on your couch and you might not know this about your house, but there is a remarkably gorgeous and kissable person who came to keep me company last night." He said with a smirk and was met with a light slap on the arm from Rory. "Let me pay you back through breakfast." He pleaded.

"I can't let you pay for my mother too." She argued.

"Rory, I don't like to flaunt this fact, but I am entirely capable of paying for _anything_ for you and your mother. Breakfast is no problem. Please." He added.

"Ugh. I hate that you're a gentleman. It makes me feel like crap." She said giving in.

"Well, my dear piece of crap, I will try to be more of a pig just for you." He said with a smile as he put money on the counter and, taking Rory's hand, led them out the door.

After an hour and a half of wandering through the multitudes of stores selling porcelain unicorns and all the other tributes to the bizarre in Stars Hollow, Rory and Tade found themselves back in the center of town. Information about Tade had spread and instead of disrespectful glares, he got nods of comradery and intrigue. They would have gone to see Lane but she was in California visiting Dave.

"So, what do you think?" Rory asked with a smile and a humble look at her shoes.

"It's just like I imagined; utterly odd and completely beautiful. Like you." He said with a grin as he wrapped his arms around her waste.

"You always know the perfect thing to say." She smiled into his chest.

"It's easy to tell the truth." He said lifting her chin so that their eyes met. Lightning. As they melted together in a sweet kiss, raindrops began to fall. They pulled apart, looked to the sky with smiles, and returned to their kiss, oblivious to the townspeople around them running for cover from the storm.

When the beating of the raindrops on their heads became too much, they pulled apart again, and with a smile and a bow Tade turned and offered his back to Rory. She had become accustomed to this form of transportation and hopped on without hesitation.

The walk home was filled with rain-soaked giggles and Rory's soft, wet kisses on the back of Tade's neck. He was using all his mental strength to keep himself calm, but when they reached the front door he gave up. In a movement lacking visible grace, he let go of Rory's legs and they landed on the porch with a thud. She was somewhat startled until she felt him whip her around so that her back was against the house and his hips were pressed against hers. He captured her lips in a fiery kiss that sent her mind reeling. When she felt a distinct pressure against her hipbone she smiled into the kiss and flipped his back against the wall so that she was trapping him. In amazing speed she had the front door unlocked and he was carrying her across the threshold.

"Wait." She said breathlessly as she pulled away.

"Sorry. I don't know what came over me." He attempted to apologize.

"Oh no. That was fine. Better than fine. I just don't want us to drip all over the house." Rory explained indicating their soaked clothing.

"Not a problem." He smirked as he yanked off his t-shirt and sweater in one motion and reached for the hem of Rory's shirts.

"Hold on." She said raising a finger. "Mom! Are you in the house?" she paused and listened. "Mom! If you are in the house I suggest you make your presence known!" there was no response. She noticed a light blinking on the answering machine and pressed the button.

"You guys are probably still out, but I just wanted to let you know that I won't be home till late. There's money for food under the rabbi. See you later." Lorelai's voice came from the machine while they kicked their shoes off.

"I guess we're alone." Rory turned back to Tade with a smirk.

"I guess so." He said with a grin as he pulled Rory's shirts over her head. His eyes roamed over her milky torso and her lace-covered chest. They had gotten to the shirtless point before, but every time he was still amazed by her pure beauty.

She smiled at his astonished face when she undid the button and zipper on her jeans. He watched her shimmy the pants down over her hips to expose plain, black, cotton underwear. He let his features settle into a soft grin as he stepped closer and let his large hands slide down her delicate arms while she kicked her pants off and reached for the silver button on his black, wool pants.

"You do remember that there is nothing underneath these pants right?" he asked hesitantly, but she silenced his fears with a deep kiss. Her hands slid down his chest, back to the button that she easily undid. Next she pulled down the zipper and the pants fell down his legs. As he stepped out of the woolen pool at his ankles, Rory pulled away to look at the newly exposed territory. She had never really seen a man's body before and there was something amazingly powerful about the way he was constructed that brought a smile to her lips. Rory was the first person to see his post-puberty form, but he wasn't afraid. He looked at the wide-eyed expression on her face and laughed.

"What?" she asked with blushing cheeks. He had caught her staring.

"You're such a virgin." He answered with another burst of laughter.

"We'll see about that." Rory countered with a smirk before she attacked his lips. In one quick movement Tade scooped her into his arms without breaking the kiss and led her into her bedroom. He laid Rory down on the bed and kicked the door shut simultaneously. After more intense kissing, he licked a trail down her neck to her bra strap. He pulled back for a moment with a thoughtful look on his face.

"You don't taste like vanilla." He stated in a childish manner.

"Well you don't taste like chocolate." Rory retorted somewhat defensively.

"I'm not complaining, just noting." He explained with a smile.

"Alright, carry on." She said with a slight shrug that sent her bra strap gliding down her shoulder. Tade followed its trail with his tongue then kissed his way back up her neck while he unclipped her bra.

"Wow." He mumbled under his breath as he gaze drifted over her chest. No one had ever seen her breasts, but she wasn't afraid. She smiled when she heard him mumble and pulled him back to her lips. "It's kind of late to be saying this, but I don't have a condom." He admitted with a look dripping with disappointment.

"Don't worry." She said with a smirk as she pulled a box of condoms out of her bedside table. "Paris bought me these as a joke, but I guess the joke's on her." She explained.

"Remind me to thank her one day." He said as he dove back to her lips.

An hour and three condoms later, they lay contentedly in each other's arms with huge grins plastered on their faces.

"Tell me a story." Rory requested.

"Once upon a time," he began in a husky voice as Rory listened to the rumbling of the words in his chest. "There was a beautiful girl in the ridiculous land of Connecticut who had an eye for the darkies. One day she spotted herself a nice piece of meat and pounced. Now this particular black guy was special. He wasn't a prince. No. He wasn't rich. He wasn't particularly handsome, but he could do something that made this girl go crazy. He could wiggle his ears. When she learned of this sexy skill she clubbed him over the head, dragged him back to her place, and had her way with him three times. And they lived happily ever after." He finished in his soft story voice.

"That was beautiful." She joked. When she looked up at his face he grinned at her and wiggled his ears. "Alright you sex monkey, let's go take some showers before my mother gets home." She said rising from the bed, taking the blanket with her.

"I don't want to shower." He said with a pout.

"Well you have to because we smell like sex. So you're going to shower downstairs, I'll shower upstairs and we'll meet in here when we're through." She ordered sternly.

"Fine." He gave in with a shake of his head and walked to the bathroom. About three seconds after he left, however, he raced back into the room, scooped Rory (blankets and all) into his arms and gave her the most intense kiss of her life. "I love you. Don't forget it while you're all the way upstairs." He gave her a smile and one last peck on the cheek before he went out the door and into the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later a washed and dressed Rory walked into her bedroom to find Tade, clad in uncharacteristic sweatpants and a black wife-beater, dancing and singing around the room as he cleaned up the mess of sheets everywhere.

"Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now

I feel good, I knew that I would, now

So good, so good, I got you!

Whoa! I feel nice, like sugar and spice,

I feel nice, like sugar and spice,

So nice, so nice, I got you!" he sang the two licks of the sax in an unabashed volume, completely oblivious to Rory's presence.

"When I hold you in my arms,

I know that I can't do no wrong.

And when I hold you in my arms,

My love won't do you no harm.

And I feel nice, like sugar and spice

I feel nice, like sugar and spice.

So nice, so nice, I got you." As he sang the licks of the sax he noticed Rory standing by the door, and with a blushing grin he danced to her side and twirled her around.

"When I hold you in my arms,

I know that I can't do no wrong.

And when I hold you in my arms,

My love can't do me no harm.

And I feel nice, like sugar and spice,

I feel nice, like sugar and spice.

So nice, so nice, well I got you.

Whoa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now.

I feel good, I knew that I would.

So good, so good, cause I got you.

So good, so good, cause I got you.

So good, so good, cause I got you." He dipped her as he finished his James Brown rendition and when he pulled her back to a standing position they were both giggling softly. They finished making the bed and putting the rumpled sheets in the washing machine and went to go scavenge for food.

After they had settled for an appetizer of pop-tarts and soda, they heard the front door open followed by a deep voiced "Oh God." When they went out to the hallway to see who it was, they found a frazzled Luke trying to escape out the front door without being noticed.

"Luke?" Rory asked confused.

"Uh, hi Rory." Luke mumbled without meeting her eyes and with an expression that was somewhere between embarrassment and pain.

"Oh crap." Rory breathed as she realized that Luke had noticed hers and Tade's clothing strewn about the hallway in a blatant indication of their sexual encounter.

"Yeah, uh, I was just looking for your mother, but I guess she's not here." Luke's gaze had moved to somewhere just above Rory's head.

"Yeah, she had to work late at the inn." Tade replied when he found that Rory was unable to speak. When he received a piercing glare from Luke, however, he decided that staying silent was probably a better move.

"Alright, well, I'm going to go now. Yeah, ok, bye." Luke said as he stepped backwards out the door and closed it. As soon as the door was closed, Rory gave Tade a light punch on the arm and a semi-serious glare.

"What?" Tade asked completely confused.

"You were being so nice in my room that you made me forget about our trail of clothing out here." She frowned.

"Sorry." He said with a good-natured smirk as he drew Rory into a hug.

"Luke knows that we had sex. Oh God. I could roll up right here and die." She mumbled into his chest.

"At least it wasn't your mother." He said mostly to himself.

"Maybe for you, but I would rather have my mother know about my new found sex life than Luke. I mean, I have to tell my mother anyway, but I never intended for Luke to know. Ever." She explained banging her head lightly against his shoulder.

"Wait, you're going to tell your mother?" Tade asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah. I promised her when I was eighteen that I would talk to her about it before it happened, and well, I didn't do that so the least I can do is tell her after the fact." Rory clarified as she slipped out of the hug and began picking up their clothing.

"Good lord. I feel like she might dismember me." He whimpered while he picked up his pants from the floor.

"I don't know. I think it could be ok." She mused as she skipped back into the kitchen.

Three hours later, Rory and Tade were dancing along with the characters in Sleeping Beauty.

"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream.

I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam." Tade sang in a deep, private voice, unaware that Lorelai had come home in time to hear his singing and was standing in the doorway transfixed by the intimate scene before her.

"Mom!" Rory quickly pulled away from Tade when she noticed her mother's presence. For some reason she felt intensely bashful. Of course she knew why she was embarrassed, but her mother didn't know why.

"Sorry to intrude." Lorelai apologized.

"No problem." Tade excused with a humble smile and a little squeeze of Rory's hand, which was still interlaced with his own.

"Have you guys eaten yet?" Lorelai asked.

"Not yet. We just ordered a pizza. It should be here any minute." Rory answered with a distracted smile on her face as she looked down at her hand that was holding Tade's. She looked up with a startled smile when the doorbell rang.

"I guess that minute has arrived." Lorelai joked with a semi-nervous laugh as she went to pay for the food.

"Dude, calm down." Tade whispered into Rory's ear and gave her a peck on the cheek.

When they had settled down with their pizza, Rory turned to her mother.

"Luke came by looking for you a few hours ago." Rory said in her most casual voice.

"Oh crap." Lorelai sighed mostly to herself.

"You're telling us." Tade mumbled before receiving a jab in the ribs from Rory.

"Would you like to share with us the reason for Luke's visit?" Rory prodded.

"I forgot to cancel on him?" Lorelai answered in a guess. She had been caught.

"And what did you forget to cancel exactly?" Rory continued.

"Our dinner thing." Lorelai answered quietly.

"I see." Rory finished her interrogation with a smile and turned back to her pizza.

A few hours later, Rory awoke to find herself curled up against Tade's chest. She looked around until she saw the clock. It was 1:37. Late, but not too late. She had to speak to her mom. She carefully climbed over Tade's sleeping form and ascended the stairs. With a soft knock and a deep breath she opened the door to her mother's bedroom.

"Mom?" she whispered loudly.

"Yeah?" Lorelai asked in a groggy voice.

"I need to tell you something." Rory said closing the door behind herself. This got Lorelai's attention.

"Hold on." Lorelai sat up, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and looked to Rory expectantly.

"I, uh, I," She took a breath and sat down on the foot of the bed and looked at her hands. "I slept with Tade." She looked up at her mother's face with reluctance.

"Were you safe?" Lorelai asked the question that she had prepared for just this moment.

"Extremely." Rory answered with some relief.

"Are you, uh, happy?" Lorelai asked.

"Extremely." Rory answered with a small, inward smile.

"You didn't do it on the couch did you?" Lorelai asked with hesitation.

"No. Don't' worry. We went nowhere near the couch." Rory replied with a light laugh, full of relief.

"How was it?" Lorelai asked, launching into friend mode.

"Mom!" Rory blushed furiously.

"What? I don't want any gory details. Just tell me, in one word, how was the general experience?" Lorelai inquired.

"Perfect." Rory responded without needing a moment of thought.

"Good." Lorelai accepted.

"I just love him more than I ever thought possible. Do you know what I mean? When you meet the person that makes you feel most like yourself and makes you unafraid to be yourself. He just makes you a better and happier person all around." Rory spilled.

"Yeah. I think I know what you mean." Lorelai replied in an airy voice full of far away thoughts and unshared memories.

"Speaking of which, what's going on between you and Luke?" Rory cut into her mother's thoughts.

"What?" Lorelai had been caught off guard.

"You heard me. You and Luke. Spill." Rory ordered as she got more comfortable leaning against the headboard with her mother. She wasn't that angry for not being a part of this. It was this fact that frightened her the most. She had gotten to a point where it was ok for her mother keep things from her.

"I don't really know how to explain it. One day, shortly after you went back to school I was complaining to him about how I was lonely sitting around in the big empty house eating by myself and the next night he showed up at my door with bags of groceries and told me that he was going to make me dinner. And who was I to disagree with food and good company? We had a wonderful dinner. We talked about loads of things that we just never got around to talking about before. Past relationships. Our childhood memories. Our hopes and dreams. Our failures. Our regrets. Our triumphs. It was just so nice to have someone to talk to. And not just anybody, but Luke. It was just Luke and it was wonderful. Since that first night he's come by at least once a week to make me dinner and most of the other nights I eat at the diner. I just like being with him." She explained.

"Have these dinners progress beyond the friend level?" Rory asked.

"No." Lorelai answered.

"Do you want them to?" Rory asked. She received a telling silence in response. "You have to tell him." She advised.

"What if he just wants to be friends?" Lorelai asked in an uncharacteristically small voice. For some reason she felt like Rory might really know the answers. That her own daughter was more mature in this field than herself.

"We both know that's not the case. He has been holding in his feelings for you for so long, I really think that's why he's losing his hair." Rory joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Thanks kiddo." Lorelai said with a smile. "You really are the best friend a girl could have." She added giving her daughter a kiss on the head.

"Ditto." Rory sighed as they dozed off to sleep.

The next morning Rory and Tade loaded up his car and prepared to say goodbye to Lorelai. Tade had made a special effort not to be alone with Lorelai at any moment, but she didn't look too upset, just sort of nostalgic as she watched Rory.

"Alright mom, we better get going." Rory said as she skipped up the porch steps to reach her mother.

"Ok sweets. You'll be back next week for you're birthday right?" Lorelai asked.

"Of course." Rory answered.

"Will you be bringing Prince Charming?" Lorelai asked with a smile.

"Yes." Rory answered with a smile.

"I actually have a question I need to ask you about that, but I'll call you later." Tade interjected towards Lorelai as he came to meet them on the porch.

"Ooh, is it a surprise?" Rory asked playfully.

"Yes it is missy." He answered wrapping his arms around her waste.

"Ok, you two are disgusting. Get out of my sight." Lorelai joked.

"We're leaving now. Bye mom." Rory said giving her mother a hug goodbye.

"Bye." Lorelai smiled

"Thanks for having me. I had a lovely time." Tade said to Lorelai, never one to forget his manners.

"Always a prince." Rory mumbled with a smile as she pulled Tade down the steps.

"Are you complaining?" Tade asked with a smirk.

"Never." Rory replied with a fake gasp. "So, quick question." She began.

"Shoot." He prepared.

"May I drive your car?" Rory asked in her sweetest voice.

"Of course girlie." He said tossing her the keys.

"Good answer." Rory smirked as she jumped into the drivers seat with Tade jumping in beside her. She started the car, waved goodbye to her mother, and they drove off together.

When Rory kicked open the door to her dorm room she found a perplexed Paris staring at a card attached to a bouquet of flowers.

"Rory? Why did your boyfriend send me a thank you card?" Paris asked.

"You don't want to know." Rory laughed to herself.


	9. birthday party

Lightning

A/N: This will be my last update for a while, but don't worry there is more to come in the future. I have big plans for this story.

Chapter Nine: Birthday Party

"Here's the thing that always bothered me with this movie." Tade started with a flick of his wrist towards the television before tossing a piece of cereal into his mouth. "It's obviously about racial barriers and the such. You know, she's a mermaid, he's a human and she needs to be human to be a part of his world, but they completely ignore the fact that Flounder is desperately in love with Ariel. You can see it in the way he follows her and gives her gifts and in his big fishy eyes." He stated.

"But of course they couldn't have a story about Flounder turning into a Merman because it is a rule that you must have a prince in these Disney films." Rory argued.

"Lady and the Tramp has no prince. Neither does 101 Dalmations, the Jungle Book, or Aristocats for that matter. A prince is not a must." He countered.

"But they sure make the story fun." She replied with a smirk. She loved when he got swept up in ordinarily insignificant theories. He tried to keep a calm exterior at all times, but when they were alone he let passion drip over ever detail.

He quickly caught on to her meaning and turned to her with raised eyebrows. Lightning. "How fun?" he coaxed.

Rory leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. Sugary sweet. Always. "That fun." She said pulling away to gage his reaction.

"Well that's just not fun enough. Let me see what I can do about that." He said with a smile as he pushed the junk food off the bed and turned to a giggling Rory. With the sound of M&M's sprinkling across the floor and the quiet Disney tunes coming from the television, the two were sucked into a cloud of passion. Their lips were fused together in a surge of warmth as their hands ran across the other's body searching for the perfect resting spot. There was no resting spot. There was too much clothing. This thought ran through both of their minds as they clawed at the binding fabrics. Suddenly the tingling of a cell phone broke into their heated groping.

"I have to get that." Rory breathed reluctantly.

"Let it ring." Tade urged.

"It's my mother. I can feel it." She said reaching for her phone.

"Weirdo." Tade grumbled with a smile.

"Hey mom." Rory said into the phone as she tried to control her erratic breathing.

"Hi sweets. Why are you winded?" Lorelai asked, clueless.

"I was, uh, dancing." Rory said with a shrug in the direction of a laughing Tade.

"Ew. So don't want to know what you were actually doing." Lorelai said catching on.

"And I so don't want to tell you. So, moving on." Rory attempted to guide the conversation in a new direction.

"Anyway, I called to confirm that you will be arriving in Stars Hollow around six tomorrow evening." Lorelai said.

"That's right. Tade will get there at four though to help set up and prepare whatever other surprise he has in the works." Rory informed her mother as Tade grinned and bounced his eyebrows in a mysterious manner at the mention of his surprise.

"Ok. Good. I still can't believe that you're turning twenty. I feel like Methuselah." Lorelai whined.

"I won't be twenty until the day after tomorrow and you aren't old at all." Rory calmed.

"Oh you humor me. Why don't you get back to your boyfriend while I go search for my knitting needles and my Ginkgo Biloba." Lorelai said in an old lady voice.

"You have fun with that." Rory played along.

"Bye hun." Lorelai gave up.

"Bye." Rory flipped her cell phone closed. "Where were we?" Rory asked with a mischievous look in Tade's direction.

"We were investigating the benefits of having a prince in the story." Tade answered as he crawled up the bed beside her.

"Oh yeah." Rory giggled as she met him in a kiss.

At 3:45 the next afternoon, Tade found himself driving to Stars Hollow alone. He was a little bit nervous about being in Rory's environment without her, but he had a plan to make this the best birthday of her life. They had only been together for about two and a half months, but it felt like forever, yet when he looked in her eyes it was like the first time every time. In other words, she confused the hell out of him, but one thing he was sure about was that he loved her.

A little while later he strode up the porch steps and knocked on Lorelai's door.

"You're early." Lorelai greeted.

"I was excited." Tade excused with a grin.

"Come on in." Lorelai opened the door to him, giving in to his charm with a small smile of her own. "So what's this big surprise about?" Lorelai asked as she followed him into the kitchen.

In response Tade merely wagged his finger and shook his head.

At 6:04 Rory pushed open the door to her house and was met with an explosion of confetti and noisemakers. She received a massive hug from her mother that nearly sent her toppling over. That was followed by a squeeze from Sookie and then Miss Patty. Once the hugging was finished she glanced around at all the familiar faces. Her grandparents were nearby and they exchanged greetings and a birthday check. Luke was pretending to occupy himself by checking the sturdiness of their stair banister. Michel, who had been forced to come, returned to his conversation with Emily after he gave a nod of greeting. Babette and Morey were sitting on the couch with a crowd of acquaintances, no doubt retelling embarrassing stories from Rory's past. She spotted Lane trapped in a conversation with Kirk and made her way over.

"Rory!" Lane squealed at the sight of her friend whom she hadn't seen in weeks before ambushing her with a hug.

"Hey Lane. Hey Kirk, may I borrow her for a moment?" Rory asked.

"You're the birthday girl." Kirk gave in raising his hands in defeat.

"Thanks." Rory managed as Lane dragged her away.

"So?" Lane began.

"So, what?" Rory asked.

"Where is this boyfriend I've heard so much about?" Lane prodded.

"I don't actually know." Rory answered with a small frown as she realized that she had not seen him when she arrived.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he's somewhere. He's never been here. He's probably standing somewhere amazed by all the freaks." Lane guaranteed.

"Oh, uh, I forgot to tell you something." Rory started, realization dawning on her face. She hadn't told Lane about Tade's visit or any of the events that occurred during said visit.

"What?" Lane asked as Rory pulled her into her bedroom by the elbow.

"Ok, uh, this is weird. I've known you forever, but this is still weird. Alright, I'll say it like this," Rory sat on the bed and indicated for Lane to follow as she prepared herself. "You know how long, long ago there used to be cultures that sacrificed virgins as, like, their thing?" She began.

"Yeah." Lane followed hesitantly.

"Well, if that fad ever comes back, I'm off the hook." Rory finished with raised eyebrows hoping that Lane would catch on.

"Uh," Lane looked confused, but suddenly her features shifted in a stream of understanding to one of shock. "You and Tade?" she asked for lack of anything else to say.

"Yep." Rory answered with a small, blushing smile.

"When?" Lane asked still wide-eyed.

"Last weekend." Rory replied with slight guilt that she hadn't told her friend earlier, but it's a hard topic to just bring up out of the blue.

"Where?" Lane asked seemingly unaware that she was beginning to sound like she was trying to solve the mystery in Clue.

"Uh, here, actually." Rory answered with a blushing nod to the bed they were sitting on.

"Whoa! Ok, too close for comfort." Lane exclaimed as she quickly stood up from the bed.

"He came to visit per the request of my mother and grandmother and my mother was working late at the inn and it was raining and I really, really love him." Rory explained although she didn't really need to justify her actions.

"How was it?" Lane asked with a giddy expression.

"Um," Rory stammered with blazing cheeks. "It was amazing." She answered truthfully. At that moment there was a sharp knock on the door that Rory recognized as belonging to Paris. "Come in." She called.

"I come all the way to your birthday party and you're hiding out in your bedroom?" Paris reprimanded before turning to greet Lane. "Hi Lane." She said curtly.

"Hey Paris." Lane said with a nod.

"So what are we talking about?" Paris asked.

"Sex." Lane answered without a second thought before she received a jab in the ribs from Rory.

"What?" Paris asked with raised eyebrows and a pointed look at Rory whose face was getting progressively redder.

"Sorry." Lane cringed.

"So our little Mary finally got laid." Paris said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up, but know this: I did it with the condoms you gave me." Rory said with a smirk of her own as she got up and opened the door to leave.

"Ew." Lane decreed as she walked out the door.

"Those were a joke." Paris shouted after Rory, who had moved towards the living room.

A few minutes later Tade crept in through the back door with a dress and a suit, which he hung up on the back of Rory's bedroom door. As he was bent in the fridge looking for a coke he felt someone enter the room. He looked up to see a small, Korean person whom he assumed to be Lane.

"Hi, you must be Tade." Lane greeted.

"It was the black thing that gave it away wasn't it?" Tade asked.

"Uh," Lane found herself somewhat uncomfortable.

"Don't worry. I'm going to guess that you're Lane because of the whole Korean thing. So we're even." He smiled.

"Yeah, I'm Lane. Nice to finally meet you." Lane said with a bashful smile as she extended her hand.

"Ditto." He shook her hand. "We should start a club. The Only Non-Whites To Sneak Into Stars Hollow." He joked.

"We can make t-shirts." Lane played along.

"I see you guys have met." Rory said coming into the room. "Hey." She added with a quiet smile as she gave Tade a light kiss.

"Sorry I'm late. I had some stuff to do." He excused.

"What kind of stuff? Surprise stuff?" Rory pestered.

"Yes. It was surprise stuff, but that's all you're getting out of me." He answered with a grin as wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his chest.

"Just answer me one thing. Does this surprise, by any chance, involve a large, pink elephant?" she asked in her most serious voice although ha smile was poking out of her eyes.

"You got me. I was out back putting a bow on him. His name is Leonard. He's pink with a blue stripe on his left ear, but don't mention it because it makes him self-conscious." Tade answered in completely seriousness.

"Ok. You two are sickening." Lane interposed before leaving the kitchen.

"Finally, we're alone." Rory whispered in a mock seductive voice before her lips were seized by Tade's. As they sank into each other Tade pinned her against the refrigerator.

"Oh, sorry." Christopher excused as he walked into the room. "I was just looking for my," Tade pulled away to expose a blushing Rory to her father. "Daughter." He finished lamely.

"Hi Dad." Rory greeted sheepishly. She noticed Tade freeze in place. This was not the way he had hoped to meet Rory's father. "Oh, Dad, this is my boyfriend, Tade. Tade, this is my father Christopher." She introduced.

"Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Tade extended his hand. Manners.

"And I have heard nothing about you." Christopher said shaking Tade's hand with excessive strength.

"Chris? Did you find her?" Lorelai called before entering the room. She visibly cringed upon taking in the occupants of the room. "Oh." She said.

"Yep. I was just introduced to, what was it? Tade?" Christopher informed Lorelai in a tone dripping with disparagement.

"Dad." Rory admonished. This was not the way she wanted to see her father for the first time in over a year. They had left things badly and apparently they were going to start them badly.

"Tade, why don't we go schmooze with the group. Hm?" Lorelai suggested with a less than discreet nod of her head towards the door.

"Sounds like a plan." Tade threw her a gracious smile, gave a supportive look towards Rory, and a meaningless nod to Christopher as he walked towards the living room behind Lorelai.

When they stepped into the room the crowd let out a huge "Tade!" that sent his eyebrows flying up his forehead in surprise. He felt like Norm from Cheers, but it was much creepier.

"Hey everybody." He said pulling his eyebrows down into a smile. Calm. Cool. Collected. Manners.

"Honey, we were just reminiscing about when Rory was little. We were all here for her whole childhood, but since she's gone to college we don't get to see her enough. Why don't you tell us a little about her Yale life. How did you guys meet?' Miss Patty asked.

"Well, I had just gotten there." He began in the voice he reserved for telling stories to large groups. "And I went for a walk to see some of the famed Yalies. They were all thoroughly dull, but one caught my eye." Babette let out a small coo of delight. "As our eyes met there was a shriek of lightning and the rain began to fall. It was love at first sight as we danced around in the storm." He finished with a grin.

"That's the most romantic thing I've ever heard." Miss Patty decided as she dug through her purse for a tissue.

In the kitchen, Rory and Christopher were still standing in silence, listening to Tade's narrative.

"Sorry, for being rude before." Christopher apologized quietly.

"No problem." Rory forgave.

"It's just hard on a guy when he comes to his baby girl's birthday party to find her making out with some guy in the kitchen." He explained.

"But I'm not your baby girl anymore. I'm twenty years old." Rory said gently.

"Hey, not for a few more hours. Don't give me grief ok?" He joked.

"Alright, old man." She added with a grin as she walked towards the living room.

"Oh, right through the heart." He said clutching his chest.

"Rory, are you killing your father?" Lorelai mock scolded.

"Just a little." Rory answered with a smile. "So, are you guys retelling embarrassing stories from my past?" She asked the group.

"No." Everyone answered at once.

"I like the communal lying. It works." Rory shook her head as she sat on Tade's lap on the couch. "Hey, how you holding up?" She whispered to him.

"I'm much better now that I've got the birthday girl sitting in my lap." He answered quietly and gave her a kiss on the cheek. In response all the women in the group cooed in their direction.

"Alright, that's enough of your sweet talking young man." Lorelai cut in.

"Sorry lady, but your daughter's got me under a spell." He retorted with a smirk.

"Always a prince." Rory smiled with a sweep of her hand across his cheek.

"I can't help it. It's in my blood." He said with a smirk and a shrug of his shoulders. She rolled her smiling eyes at him and turned back to the group.

A few hours later the guests began to disperse and Tade started his plan rolling.

"Hey Ror," He called from inside her bedroom, barely able to suppress the smile of anticipation from affecting his voice. "I left a CD I wanted to lend your mother in my car. Could you run out front and get it for me?" He asked.

"Already throwing his royal weight around. I was waited for when it would start." Rory joked from the living room where she was collecting empty soda cans. "Sure. I can get your CD." She finished dropping the bag in the corner and heading out the front door.

In the bedroom Tade was rapidly trying to get his suit on, but the giddiness vibrating off of her fingertips made it difficult to button his shirt.

Outside, Rory was rummaging through the glove compartment of the Corvette when she heard the distinct sound of a horse's nay. She looked up and saw a grey Shetland attached to a sleek, black carriage. There was no driver in sight as Rory drew closer to the horse. Attached to the said of the carriage was a large, white enveloped with "Rory" delicately engraved in silver, cursive letters. She rotated her eyes to see if anyone was watching her before she reached out for the envelope. For some reason she felt as though she was not the Rory for whom this enveloped belonged, but she was the only Rory she knew, so she cautiously reached out her hand and removed the envelope from where it was fastened.

"Your prince awaits." She read. A smile began to creep across her lips as she turned back to look at her house. There stood her prince. Tade was standing in the middle of the steps in a black suit and a yellow dress shirt with a large sunflower dangling between his fingers. She was speechless. He gave her an expectant smile and she ran into his arms. "You're my favorite prince." She kissed him. "Better than Phillip." She kissed him again. "Better than Eric." Another kiss. "Better than Florimond." Kiss. "Your even better than Simba. Now that's saying something." She joked.

"At last, my dreams have come true. I have defeated the Disney princes in the eyes of fair Rory." He said in a tone of mock triumph. "But if you think this is good, you haven't seen anything yet." He added with a mischievous grin. "Please, follow me." He said, taking her hand and leading her back into the house, where, hung up in such away that it was the first thing she saw, was a blue gown that put Cinderella's to shame. She looked between Tade and the dress with her mouth agape. "Put it on while I go prepare your chariot." He said, handing her the sunflower he was still holding. As he turned to leave, however, he was pulled back by Rory and caught in a kiss that brought the blood pounding to his ears. When she pulled away, he wiggled his ears at her, and went back out the door.

Mere moments later, Rory emerged from her house looking better than anything Walt Disney could have imagined. Tade got down from the carriage and helped her in before sitting down and taking the reigns himself. Rory got cozy in a blanket that smelled exactly the way a blanket should, and watched as Tade directed the horse. She was so entranced by his grace and power that she didn't notice where they were going until they were there.

Suddenly, as they rounded the corner and entered the town square, Rory caught sight of some activity in the gazebo. By the time they pulled up next to it her eyes were huge saucers darting between Tade and the scene before her.

"Miss," He said climbing down from his post and offering Rory his hand.

"Tade, this is," the words dissolved into the air because there was no way to describe this. He led her up the gazebo steps and she stopped to stare. Somehow he had brought the piano from Miss Patty's into the space, then, scattered candles all around and mixed them bouquets of sunflowers.

"Take a seat here." Tade guided her to the piano bench and sat down beside her. With a quick smile in her direction he put his fingers to the ivory keys. She watched as his beautiful fingers stroked the keys and listened to the wondrous sounds that were produced.

"Some day, when I'm awfully low,

when the world is cold,

I will feel a glow just thinking of you

And the way you look tonight." His gentle voice sang.

"Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm

and you cheeks so soft,

there is nothing for me but to love you,

and the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,

Tearing my fear apart,

And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,

It touches my foolish heart." He smiled at her.

"Lovely, never, ever change.

Keep that breathless charm.

Won't you please arrange it?

Cause I love you, just the way you look tonight." He hummed along oblivious to the multitudes of people inside Miss Patty's dance studio watching them with tearing eyes.

"Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,

just the way you look tonight." His fingers flew over the keys and ended the song. He looked to Rory and saw that there were tears forming in her eyes, but she looked happy. With a quick, impish grin in her direction he brought his fingers back to the keys and pounded out some familiar notes.

"Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, dear Rory.

Happy birthday to you." He finished with a laugh as he looked to Rory's smiling face.

"Thank you." She whispered and gave him a soft kiss.

"Rory, will you dance with me?" he asked as he stood from the bench and extended his hand.

"I would love to." She took his hand as he reached out and pressed a button on the wall of the gazebo. Soft notes of jazz began to encircle them as music flowed from the speakers that Tade had meticulously hung from the rafters. She kissed him again as they held each other and swayed to the music.

"Happy birthday." He whispered in her ear. She held him tighter, never wanting to let go.

They danced until 3:45 in the morning, at which point, Tade took Rory home in the carriage for her 4:03 meeting with her mother.

A/N: I didn't get a chance to proof read this, so I apologize if there are mistakes, but my flight for Paris leaves really soon and I'm not packed yet. I'll be back in August with more to the story.


	10. the fight

Lightning

A/N: I'm back. It's been a while but I'm ready to write more. In fact, I have the next thirty years of this story planned out. Thanks for waiting.

AN2: So far I've mostly been sticking to the rule that I only give you a glimpse into Rory and Tade's thoughts but I'm thinking of reverting to the omniscient narrator so that I can explore more plot lines. This chapter will have a little of Lorelai and Luke's thoughts so that you can get an idea of how the new style will sound. Does anyone have a problem with that?

Chapter Ten: The Fight

"Do you need to wear underwear with linen pants?" Tade asked into the phone after pressing the number two on his speed dial.

"What color?" Essien asked. He was used to phone calls like this.

"White, but they're not see-through." Tade answered.

"Are they loose or sort of clingy?" came the next question.

"Loose." He answered.

"Yeah, you need underwear with those." Was the verdict.

"Crap. Somewhere in my mind I knew it, but they were just so comfortable that I had to get them. Are you sure I can't wear them?" Tade asked with hope.

"No chance. They're not supportive enough. I mean one second you could be hanging around being all cutesy with your girlfriend, who I still haven't met, by the way, and the next thing you know you've got yourself an architectural masterpiece emerging from your pants." Essien answered in modest terms.

"So you're telling me that I can't wear the linen pants because if I get a boner I'm fucked?" Tade asked.

"You got it." Essien congratulated.

"Fair enough." Tade replied. "So, you want a pair of white linen pants?

"What I really want is for you to come home to see me this weekend and bring those pants and your girlfriend." Essien stated.

"Uh, I don't know if she's free, but I'll see what I can do. You know I'm going to be home in two weeks for our whacked out Thanksgiving right?" Tade asked. For some reason the idea of bringing Rory to meet his brother made his stomach feel like lead.

"Shombay, I haven't seen you in weeks and the longer you stay away from me the greater your chance is of getting a kick in the head." Essien responded in a voice of mock sweetness. "Also, on Thanksgiving the brothers will be here too and you know what that means." He said.

"Yeah. Yeah. I know we'll have to spend the whole time making sure Thembi and Dinari don't light anything on fire and keep Nyack from bothering Mark with his bad jokes." Tade sighed. Thanksgiving was the same every year.

"So you see, I'm going to see you before the monsters come so that we can really catch up, preferably with your girl." He added with a smirk.

"Like I said, I'll see what I can do." Tade said to appease his brother.

"Works for me kiddo. Bye." Essien clicked off his phone.

"That is so not good." Tade exhaled as he fell back onto his bed.

"What are you doing tonight?" Lorelai eagerly asked into the phone. She was trying to be calm but that wasn't really her forte.

"Probably just hanging around here. Why? What are _you_ doing tonight?" Rory asked with a smirk at her mother's own mysterious giddiness.

"Uh, nothing much. Just working, you know. I just wanted to see about you, because, you know, I'm your, uh, mother." She rambled.

"I do know that you're my mother, but thanks for reminding me." Rory said. Something was going on with her mother. She could sense Lorelai's attempt at being secretive.

"Right. Ok. Yeah." Lorelai babbled into the phone. She sucked at secretive. She shouldn't have called.

"Mom," Rory broke into her mother's thoughts. "What are you really doing tonight?" she asked.

"I told you. Work. Nothing. Blah." Lorelai responded knowing that she had been caught. Damn Rory and her sleuth-like capabilities.

"Will you tell me after the blah what you actually did?" Rory asked sternly.

"I promise." Lorelai answered with a smile.

"Good. Is that all?" Rory asked.

"Yeah. I'll let you get back to the learning." Lorelai said returning to her normal pace of speech.

"Alright. Have fun on your secret night." Rory said with a smirk.

"Bye babe." Lorelai said shaking her head at her own inability to keep a full secret.

"Bye." Rory said as she clicked off her phone and turned back to the textbook from which she was reading. She scanned the pages of the advanced chemistry book. "Wow. Don't care." She exhaled aloud and reached for her cell phone again. She pressed speed dial two. "The more chemistry crap I read, the more I believe that electrons don't really exist." She said into the phone.

"Yeah. I kept telling my teacher all throughout high school that it was just magic, but he didn't really go for that. Oh well, his loss." Tade said with a smile.

"What are you doing now?" Rory asked with a growing grin.

"Eating Elmer's Glue." He responded as he closed the book he had been reading.

"And how's that going?" Rory asked with a smirk.

"It's just not the same after the first grade." He said with mock nostalgia.

"That's what I've heard." She grinned into the phone. "So, are you up for a Mike Meyers marathon this weekend?" She asked.

"Oh, uh, actually I told my brother that I'd go home and visit him this weekend." Tade said as the smile sank away from his face.

"Oh." Rory responded, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"I would invite you, but I'm just going down there to help clean up for our weird-ass Thanksgiving." He quickly half-lied.

"Oh yeah. Sure. Mike Meyers will still be around for another weekend." She hoped her fake smile would be reflected in her voice.

"Yeah." He said. He could hear her disappointment. He felt like crap, but he really didn't want to bring her home, but how the hell would he be able to explain that? He had met her family. This was different.

"Ok. I should probably get back to the exciting world of electrons." She said.

"Hey why don't you come over tonight and we can watch Shrek 2. You know, a little preview for our weekend." He suggested in an attempt to rid her of her disappointment.

"Sounds good. Eight?" she asked with a smile.

"Perfect." He said with relief as he heard the smile in her voice.

"See you then. Bye." She ended.

"Bye." He clicked off his phone. He took a deep breath. I suck, he thought to himself as he pressed the number two speed dial on his phone. "I'll be there this weekend but Rory can't come." He said into the phone.

"Oh. That's a shame. I desperately wanted to meet this girl who keeps you away from home for so long." Essien replied somewhat let down.

"I know, but she's got other stuff to do this weekend so maybe another time." Tade lied. I'm a shit bag, he thought. What is my problem? "Ok. I gotta go. I'll see you on Friday." He said into the phone as he rubbed his eyebrows to keep the impending headache away.

"Bye." Essien clicked off the phone.

"Donkey!" Rory called as she came into Tade's room that night.

"Puss! I'm in here." Tade called from the bathroom.

"Whatchya doing?" Rory asked in a childish voice as she looked in his fridge for a soda.

"Giving my alligator a bath." He called back as he put shaving cream on his face.

"Ooh. Dirty!" Rory giggled. Suddenly, Tade's cell phone began playing the Ghost Busters theme song.

"Can you get that Ror?" he asked with puckered lips as he guided the razor across his cheek.

"No problem." Rory flipped open his phone. "You've reached Tade's cell phone. He's busy can he call you back?" she recited into the phone.

"Hi. This is Essien, Tade's brother. You must be Rory." Essien greeted.

"Yeah. Hello." Rory said somewhat caught off guard. Tade's ears pricked up when he heard the conversation continue.

"I was sorry to hear that you couldn't make it this weekend. I was really looking forward to meeting you." Essien said very politely.

"Yeah," Rory's eyes wandered to the bathroom door as here brow furrowed and she made up some response. She would get to the bottom of this later. "I'm sorry too." She said for lack of anything else to say.

"Oh well. Maybe some other time." Essien suggested.

"Definitely." She said with a fake smile.

"Anyway, nice speaking to you. I'll try and get in touch with Shombay later." He closed.

"Nice speaking to you too. Have a good night." She closed the phone. Why couldn't she make it this weekend? Did Tade lie? Who's Shomaby? So many questions ran through her mind.

"Who was that?" Tade asked as he dried off his face.

"Essien." Rory said calmly. She would approach one issue at a time.

"Oh." His shoulders slumped visibly under his white t-shirt.

"Yeah." She said with a meaningless shrug. "So, who's Shombay?" she asked first.

"Oh, uh, that's me." He answered somewhat relieved. Maybe Essien hadn't mentioned the weekend.

"Wait, what?" she looked confused.

"It's just a stupid nickname that he and my mother have for me. It means he who walks like a lion. They said that after my run in with the lion I began to walk like one. I don't see it, but you know nicknames, they rarely make any sense." He babbled in the hopes that his would keep her from asking any more questions.

"Don't I know. I mean, how the hell does Rory come from Lorelai?" she joked. Still not completely satisfied.

"Yeah." He laughed nervously.

"Essien was sorry to hear that I couldn't make it this weekend." She began in a rather Emily Gilmore-esque style. "Although I am flattered that he expressed such a desire to meet me, I have to say that I was a little confused as to where he received the false notion that I would not be able to meet him." She said getting somewhat icier with every word.

"Look, I just panicked. It was me. I lied." He confessed.

"Why?" she asked, her voice getting small.

"I just, I just don't want him to meet you ok?!" his voice got a little louder than he wanted.

"Oh. Ok!" she shouted. "I take you to meet my parents, my grandparents, my friends, just about everyone in my life, but _you_ don't want _me_ to meet one of your brothers! That makes perfect sense!" she was getting rather worked up. She didn't know what she should be feeling. Should she be angry? Upset? Embarrassed? She was just feeling everything at this point.

"He's not just "one of my brothers"!" he unintentionally mimicked. "He's Essien!" he yelled.

"What does that mean?!" she was getting hysterical.

"He's more important than the rest of my family members! What he thinks is very very important to me!" he didn't mean to get this out of control.

"And what are you so afraid he's going to think about me?!" she asked with wild gesticulations. This was the longest she'd ever gone in a fight of this volume without breaking into tears. As she thought this the tears started to surge towards her fiery eyes.

"I-, you wouldn't understand!" he yelled getting defensive. What was he afraid of? He hadn't figured it out yet so he decided to yell instead.

"You won't let me understand! I have no idea what I'm supposed to think! Am I an embarrassment?! Is it because I'm white?! Or am I just too low-class to meet your royal family?!" she blurted the first questions that came to mind not giving a moment's thought as to whether these would be hurtful. She didn't care what he was feeling right now. She was hurt and she was trying to hide it behind sheer volume and insensitive comments.

"You know that's not true! I've never made you feel less than my equal!" he was hurt but he wouldn't let her know that.

"You just did!" she screamed as she ran from the room with tears streaming down her face. She got into her car and drove away.

"Shit!" Tade shouted into the hallway where he was met with perplexed stares from the passing students.

Rory drove down the dark streets with tears soaking her cheeks as she fished in her pockets for her cell phone. I have to call my mom, she thought. I don't know why I have to call her, but I do. How could she help? What could she say? It doesn't matter. I know she'll make me feel better. She gave up searching for her phone. I'll just drive home, she thought as she turned her car in the direction of home.

Tade got into his car. I am a horrible person, he thought. No, she took things too far, another part of him said.

"What the hell should I do?" he asked the dark sky. "Essien. Got to go to Essien." He said as he turned the car in the direction of home.

Inside the Gilmore home, Luke and Lorelai were in more than PG-13 situation when they heard a car careening into the driveway.

"What was that?" Luke asked breathlessly with fear evident in his eyes.

"Sounded like a car." Lorelai answered with the same fear playing in her eyes. She felt like a high schooler again. They listened to the sound of footsteps nearing the porch. "Shit." She exhaled as she quickly got off the couch and put her clothing back on as quickly as she could. She couldn't figure out which would be worse, getting caught having sex by your parents or your kid. She really didn't want to find out.

"Oh my God." Luke was getting more flustered by the second.

"Run upstairs!" she hissed at him as she heard the doorknob turn. "Oh man, if I ever had any magical powers at all I would really love it if something kept her from walking in that door right now." She mumbled to herself as she attempted to hide Luke's clothing under the couch cushions and he ran up the stairs with a blanket covering his nakedness.

"Mom! Are you home? I forgot my key and the door's locked and the turtle key is missing!" Rory yelled through the door.

"I knew I had magical powers." Lorelai congratulated herself as she ran to open the door for her daughter. She was met with the sight of a sad little girl with tear stained cheeks and more than disheveled hair. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"We had I fight." Was all she said before rushing into her mother's arms.

"And you drove all the way here?" Lorelai was still somewhat flustered about her close call.

"He was supposed to be perfect." Rory whimpered as she made her way to the couch. She didn't notice Lorelai cringe.

"Oh honey, nobody's perfect. You know that." She tried to comfort.

"But he was until our huge blow-up today. Why doesn't he want me to meet his brother?" She asked although her mother would have no way of knowing the answer to this question.

"I don't know kid. I'm sure there was just some misunderstanding. Family can be confusing." Lorelai said anything she could think of.

"You're right. I know you're right. We just both got so angry at each other. I had never seen him angry like that. He made me feel like crap." She said regaining her composure.

"Well then I'll have to kill him." Lorelai tried to joke.

"I was really mean too though." Rory said mostly to herself.

"Oh, just give yourselves some time to cool off." She said drawing her daughter into a hug.

"Yeah. I'm sure you're right." Rory rested her head on her mother's shoulder. As she wiped away a stray tear she caught a glimpse of plaid peaking out from underneath the couch cushion. She reach down and pulled it out until an entire sleeve was revealed. "Uh, Mom?" she asked as she stood up and pulled the rest of the large shirt out of its hiding place.

"Uh, that's, uh, mine." Lorelai lied with burning cheeks. Crap, she thought.

"Uh-huh." Rory said skeptically as she dug further under the cushion until she found a pair of large jeans. "Do you have something to tell me?" She asked.

"Luke melted?" Lorelai shrugged as she not-so-discreetly shoved Luke's stray pair of boxers under the couch.

"Mom! On the couch?" Rory whined with a disturbed look.

"I know. I know." Lorelai had her head in her hands by this point.

"Somewhere in this house there is a naked Luke. So I suggest you bring him his clothing and bring him down here for a family discussion." Rory said handing her mother the clothing.

"Ok." Lorelai took the clothing and trudged up the stairs. She went into her bedroom and found Luke sitting on the bed looking shame-facedly at his feet. "She got us." Lorelai mumbled as she tossed him his clothes.

"Oh God." Luke's hands flew to his face where he pressed his palms into his eyes as though this would make the events of the night disappear. Well, not all the events.

"Put on your clothes. She wants us to have a "discussion" downstairs." Lorelai was sounding more and more like a teenager.

"I'm waiting!" Rory called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh God." Luke cried again as he buttoned his shirt.

The two plodded down the stairs, sat on the couch, and starred at their shoes.

"So," Rory began. "Last I heard you two were having platonic dinners. Fill in the gaps." She ordered in a somewhat amused tone. She was less disturbed now that she knew everyone was fully clothed.

"It became romantic the week after your birthday. We were having a fight when Luke blurted, "Lorelai smiled, "in his gruff Luke way that he loved me. And I told him that I shared his feelings. "She looked up at her daughter so that they could share a smile.

"Finally." Rory sighed. "Who else knows?" she asked hoping she wasn't the last to find out.

"Only you." Luke assured as he glanced up from his feet for the first time. "Oh God, you've been crying. Is it our fault? I mean I know I might be brought to tears if I found my mother, uh-" Luke trailed off not knowing how to finish that sentence.

"No. I wasn't crying about that." Rory said as the smile faded from her face with the memory of the fight. "I was crying about a fight I had with Tade." She mumbled.

"I'll kill him." Luke grumbled.

"Don't worry. He seemed rather upset himself." Rory excused. Yeah, he did.

A little while later, Tade turned off of FDR drive at 14th street and made his way through the winding streets of lower Manhattan until he reached his brother's building on Prince street. He was pleasantly surprised to find a parking spot right in front of the building. He jumped out and let himself into the house with his key.

"Essien!" he called from the entryway.

"You're a few days early." His brother greeted. "Whoa, you look like shit." He added upon further inspection.

"Thanks. I'm upset. I had a fight with Rory and it's partially your fault." Tade groused.

"How is it my fault? I've never even met the girl." Essien argued.

"That's the problem! You wanted to meet her but I freaked out and lied about her not being able to come. I didn't even invite her. And when you called and didn't keep your big mouth shut she got upset." Tade explained.

"Why did you lie? Why didn't you invite her?" Essien was entirely confused.

"Because you're so ridiculously judgmental that I was afraid of what you would think." He was embarrassed to admit.

"I know I'm judgmental, but only with strangers. Although I've never met her, Rory is not a stranger. If you like her, I'll like her." Essien stated.

"It's not about liking. I know you'll like her. Everyone likes her." Tade argued.

"Well then, what's the problem?" Essien asked.

Realization quickly dawned on him. He grabbed his head. "I'm a fool." He muttered. "I have to go." Tade walked back out the door and left.

"What was that about?" Mark asked as he came up behind Essien.

"No idea." He shrugged.

"Ok." Mark said

Tade leapt back into his car and drove towards Stars Hollow. He knew that she had gone there. He just hoped he could get there quickly. He cranked up the stereo and headed back towards FDR drive. Shortest stay in New York he'd ever had.

"When I wake up, yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you.

When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you.

If I get drunk, yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you.

And if I haver, yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's havering to you.

But I would walk 500 hundred miles

And I would walk 500 hundred more

Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles

To fall down at you,r door.

When I'm working yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's working hard for you.

And when the money comes in for the work I'll do

I'll pass almost every penny on to you.

When I come home, yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you.

And if I grow old, well I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's growing old with you.

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 hundred more

Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles

To fall down at your door.

When I'm lonely, yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's lonely without you.

When I'm dreaming, yes I know I'm gonna dream

Dream about the time when I'm with you.

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles

To fall down at your door.

When I'm lonely, yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's lonely without you.

When I'm dreaming, yes I know I'm gonna dream

Dream about the time when I'm with you.

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles

To fall down at your door.

He hadn't heard that Proclaimers song in a while. It was surprisingly applicable to his feelings about Rory. Music had a certain way of unraveling the confusion in life. There was only one problem with that song: what the hell is havering? He shrugged. He'd google it later. First he had to apologize to Rory.

After what seemed like forever on the dark and empty roads he reached Stars Hollow. He turned the music down and drove to Rory's house. Her car was in the driveway when he got there. Thank God. He pulled up at the curb and climbed out of his car. The windows were dark. Shit. It didn't matter. He went up to her window and tapped his knuckles against the glass. No response. He knocked louder. He heard footsteps. Score! He saw hands that didn't belong to Rory pull the window open. Lorelai.

"Hi Lorelai." He said. He knew that she knew about the fight.

"Hey Tade. Rory's in the kitchen. Come in." She said. She knew that he would fix things. He climbed through the window. "You know we have a door right?" Lorelai joked before walking out of the room and up the stairs.

"Yes. Yes I do." Tade said dusting off his pants. He walked into the kitchen to find Rory sitting at the kitchen table with her knees pulled up to her chest , clad in pajamas that appeared to have a breakfast food theme.

"Hi." She looked up from her cookie with a small, hopeful look on her face.

"Sorry." He said.

"Sorry." She said. "I just got a little upset. I don't understand why you don't want me to meet your brother!" she accidentally got herself worked up again.

"It's because-" He trailed off. This was difficult.

"Because why?1" she shouted. So much for calm.

"Because you're a girl!" he yelled back.

"What?" she wasn't expecting that.

"You're a girl." He said at a lower volume.

"Yeah, I got that. Why is that embarrassing?" her eyebrows were knotted on her forehead.

"Because my brother is a big, turbo faggot whom I adore and it has always been a source of shame to me that I like girls. I always make myself believe that he will judge me for bringing home a girl, but really, I'll just judge myself." He was quiet now. He had never explained this complex to anyone.

"Are you upset that you like girls?" Rory asked carefully.

"No. Because I may find it embarrassing at times that I like girls, but I swear, I never find it embarrassing that I love you." He said as he walked towards her and took her hands in his. Rory pulled him into a hug.

"That's the strangest and sweetest thing I've ever heard." She said into his neck. "Thanks for coming all the way out here to explain things to me." She pulled back to look at him.

"Sorry it took so long. I drove all the way to New York and then drove all the way back here." He apologized.

"Why the hell did you do that?" she asked with wonder playing on her face.

"It took me a while to figure out what my problem was, but I wanted you to be the first to know that I am a genuine freakazoid." He joked.

"Thank you." She said before giving him a kiss. "It's been a long, strange night. Let's go to bed." She said leading him into her room.

"What about your mother?" he asked a little uneasy.

"She owes me." Rory replied.

A little while later they were lying cuddled in Rory's small bed. All was good in the world of Rory and Tade.

"Hey Rory?" he began.

"Hm?

"Do you know what havering is?" he asked.

"Nope." She hugged him tighter. "We can google it tomorrow.

"Sounds good." He kissed the top of her head.

It had been a long night.


	11. thanksgiving or whatever, pt 1

Lightning

A/N: For people who are new to the story: I don't remember if I wrote this in an author's note in the first chapter or if I had it in an old summary that I deleted, but SEASON FOUR FINALE DID NOT HAPPENÑat least not in my story.

A/N2: Sorry it took so long for me to update, but don't worry, you get a special two chapters for the wait of one deal.

A/N3: IF YOU WANT TO GET A GLIMPSE OF WHAT THE FUTURE HAS IN STORE FOR RORY AND TADE, I SUGGEST YOU READ MY NEW STORY, "PANIC". If you want to keep it a surprise, however, don't read it.

Chapter Eleven: ThanksgivingÑOr Whatever, Part One

The air got colder and the heavy jackets were pulled out of their hiding places in closets. Most of the leaves had fallen from the branches of the trees and the depressed, winter state of mind had descended on the people of New EnglandÑwell, most of them.

"I love this time of year!" Rory bounced around in the piles of leaves as she and Tade strolled through the Yale campus.

"I know you do." He smiled at her happiness. "Hey Ror?" He began as he stuffed his chilled hands into the pockets of his spiffy, Prada overcoat.

"Yeah?" Rory responded walking back over to him.

"What are you doing for Thanksgiving?" he asked.

"Having two separate Thanksgiving dinners." She answered.

"Wow.

"That's nowhere near the record. The only reason we're having only two is that Luke was invited to dinner at my grandparents and Lane doesn't live with her mother anymore. So this year it's just my grandparents' and Sookie's." she explained. "What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Or is that a stupid question? Do you even do anything?" she got kind of lost in her questions. Sometimes she forgot that Tade wasn't American until situations like this.

"Oh, we do something alright." He said rubbing his eyebrow at the memory of previous years. "Anyway, get to the point Tade. I was wondering if you would like to come to dinner at my house the day after Thanksgiving because that's when we celebrate." He invited, finally.

"I'd love too." A warm smile spread across her face. "Who else is going to be there?" she asked somewhat apprehensively.

"Essien, Mark, Thembi, Dinari, Nyack, and my friend Fayez." He listed on his fingers.

"Whoa." Rory breathed. That was a lot of brothers to meet at once.

"It sounds a lot more daunting than it is. Everyone is really laid back and we just gorge ourselves on food." He explained. "So are you in?" he asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." She said with a smile as she took his hand in hers.

The days passed as they are oft to do, and it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving already. With a smooch and a wave, Rory and Tade parted ways, hopped into their respective vehicles, turned towards their respective destinations, and prepared to brave the holiday traffic.

The morning air was at a biting temperature, so, reluctantly, Tade put the top up on his convertible, turned up the heat, and popped the mixed CD that Rory had made into the player. The first things he heard were the muffled strokes of a bass, followed by a familiar bang on the drums, then a high, male voice. "Can't explain all the feelings that you're making me fe-eel. My heart's in over drive and you're behind the steering wheel." The words of "I believe in a thing called love" by the Darkness filled his car. A smile spread across his face. He had once caught Rory singing this in the shower. So, naturally, a nice image of her in the shower came to mind. "I believe in a thing called love. Just listen to the rhythm of my heart." Yeah.

Meanwhile, in Rory's car she had just put the CD Tade had made for her into the player. First song? "This is dedicated to the one I love." The words of the Shirelles song brought a grin to her face. She was afraid he would start out with something that would make her blush, but he was a gentleman. As the first song ended her ears pricked up in expectation of the next. When she heard the deep, orgasmic breathing of Britney Spears spring forth from her stereo the blood raced to her cheeks. Even when she was all alone in her car this horrible song made her blush just like Tade knew it would. She laughed. He was an evil little bastard.

He was practically giddy with curiosity about what the next song would be. He recognized it immediately. God he loved her. "I believe in miracles, since you came along, you sexy thing, you." He could just imagine little Rory sitting at her computer picking this song off her iTunes collection to put on his mix. "Where did you come from baby? How did you know I needed you? How did you know I needed you so badly? How did you know I'd give my heart gladly? Yesterday, I was one of the lonely people, now you're lying close to me making love to me. I believe in miracles-" Me too. Next he heard the sound of waves crashing and the soft strokes of a ukulele. What the hell? "I used to think that I could not go on." The lead singer of Me First And The Gimme Gimmes sang. "Life was nothing but an awful song, but now I know the meaning of true love. I'm leaning on the everlasting arms." Was she really that low before I came or is it just a song? He asked himself. "If I can see it, then I can do it. If I just believe it, there's nothing to it. I believe I can fly." I believe she can fly too.

She was flying as she listened to Michael Jackson's "the way you make me feel". Tade was oddly fascinated by Michael Jackson, and she couldn't for the life of her understand why. The next track started with a memorable scream, as James Brown's "I feel good" came on. It instantly reminded her of their first time. A warm smile settled on to her face as she sang along in her uninhibited, car voice.

He let out a raucous guffaw as Bonnie Tyler's voice seeped from the speakers. "Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you never come around." Here the male voice popped up. "Turn around." Ha. They had been watching Old School a few days before. He nearly giggled. "Ever now and then I get a little bit terrified, but then I see the look in your eyes." Wait, I sometimes feel that way. Does she? The song cut out after that point. Huh, must have been a download.

She was knocked from her reverie by the sounds of a ukulele. Huh? In a moment her eardrums were throbbing to the sound of a sickeningly high-pitched voice. Tiny Tim. "Tip-toe, through the window, by the window, that is where I'll be. Come tip-toe through the tulips with me." Oh Tade. She smiled to herself. After that painful song ended Bobby Darin's voice came out. "Oh you must have been a beautiful baby, you must have been a beautiful child. When you were only startin' to go to kindergarten I bet you drove those other childs wild. Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh, when it came to winnin' blue ribbons, well I bet you taught the other kids how. Well I can see the judge's eyes as he handed you the prize, oh I bet you took the cutest bow. Yeah, you must have been a beautiful baby, cause baby won't you look at you now." She blushed although no one could see her. Oh Tade.

Tade waited for the next song. "Love!" Captain and Tenille. "Love will keep us together. Think of me, babe, whenever. Some sweet talking girl comes along, singing a song, don't mess around, you just gotta be strong. Just stop, cause I really love. Stop. I've been thinking of you. Look in my heart and let love keep of together." Of course.

Before Rory knew it, she was parking her toasty car in her driveway. Home. She turned off her car and with it the music ended too. She missed him already. She took the CD out of the player so that she could finish it in the house. She grabbed her stuff from the backseat, went into the house, and was met with an unnatural smell. Wait, was something burning? She followed the smell into the kitchen. Yup. Low and behold, her mother and Luke were necking against the refrigerator as a pot of indiscernible something-or-other sat, neglected and burning, on the stove.

"You two are going to send me to an early grave." She moaned as she walked into her bedroom.

"Oh God." Luke pulled away. "Can we put a bell on her or something?" he asked.

"I've been trying for years but she just won't hold still." Lorelai joked as she walked into Rory's room. "Hey sweets." She greeted.

"I think we're getting too comfortable about our sex lives around each other." Rory stated as she put Tade's CD in her stereo.

"What's that?" Lorelai asked.

"It's a CD Tade made for me." She pushed play.

"Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight." Huh, he used Captain and Tenille too. "Gonna grab some afternoon delight. My motto's always been "when it's right, it's right" why wait until the middle of a cold, dark night? When everything's a little clearer in the light of day, and we know the night is always gonna be here anyway. Thinking of you's working up an appetite, looking forward to a little afternoon delight." Rory noted her mother's horrified expression.

"He was joking." Rory scoffed. "Mostly." She mumbled the last part.

"Whoa! Now who's getting a little too comfortable?" Lorelai asked with her hands raised before her in an attempt to stave off anymore unwanted images.

"Sorry." Rory blushed.

"Ok. Put your coat back on. We need to go back to the diner because we killed dinner here." Lorelai said as she walked out of the room.

"Ah, home." Rory sighed to herself before grabbing her jacket and following her mother out the door.

A few miles away, Tade was in a lovely traffic jam on the Triborough Bridge. He looked out the window to his right. There was a remarkably fat man sitting in a purple Ford Taurus. Wait, is he sleeping? Tade grabbed an empty soda can from the passengers seat, rolled down his window, and chucked the can at the fat man's window. The fat man awoke with a jolt and turned to glare at Tade.

"Asshole, did you just throw _garbage_ at my car?" the fat man asked incredulously after rolling down his window.

"Yeah, here's a hint: don't fucking fall asleep at the wheel!" Tade yelled before putting his window back up and hitting the gas because his lane had just freed up. I love New York.

He turned the volume back up on his stereo and listened for the next song. "Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm. I don't know what you got, but it's getting to me. It makes my cold nights hot. Hot winds just blow right through me. Oh power! Baby, it's in your hands. You got me hummin' now. Ya! You got me hummin' now." He smiled into his jacket collar.

Rory got up to pour herself more coffee from behind the counter. As she watched the delicious, brown liquid spill into her mug, releasing a satisfying steam cloud, she began to hum ever so quietly.

"Are you humming?" Lorelai asked with a smirk and light-hearted mocking evident in her eyes.

"Maybe." Rory's eyes darted to her mug as she smiled into her shirt collar.

"Some asshole was asleep at the wheel on the Triborough!" Tade exclaimed after he had kicked open the door to his brother's place and dropped his stuff.

"Did you throw garbage at him until he woke up?" Essien asked from the living room.

"Of course." Tade replied as he joined his brother in the living room.

"Ah, Good Samaritan, New York style." Mark interjected as he walked out of the kitchen. "It's good to see you kid." He added pulling Tade into a hug.

"You too." Tade said, sitting back down. "Am I the first one here?" he asked, looking around.

"I sent Nyack and Fayez out to get beer because, you know." Essien jerked his head in the direction of Mark.

"Because if I am going to have to spend another moment listening to that twerp's jokes, I had better damn well be sloshed." Mark finished with a good-natured smile.

"Oh, Mark!" Essien reprimanded through a grin, with a light smack on his boyfriend's knee.

"What about the twins?" Tade asked after sharing a knowing smile with Mark.

"Those knuckleheads." Essien shook his head at the thought of them.

"Thembi's bike had some mechanical issues, or whatever, so they won't get here till Friday." Mark finished, looking as though he had tasted sour milk when he said the word "mechanical".

"Shit." Tade sighed.

"Why shit?" Mark asked.

"Because he had some crack-pot notion that he could possibly beg those two to be well behaved for his lady friend." Essien knew exactly what his brother was thinking.

"Is that such a crazy idea?" Tade asked, slightly offended.

At that moment the front door opened and the rustle of overcoats and plastic bags signaled that Nyack and Fayez had returned.

"Dude, shut up!" Fayez yelled at Nyack. His Arabian accent was thick with frustration.

"Get in here and welcome home the Ivy League boy!" Essien called.

"Tade!" Fayez greeted as he came into the living room and pulled his friend into a one-handed man-hug.

"Cam! How've you been?" Tade asked his friend.

"Not bad. Not bad." Fayez responded.

"Nyack." Tade greeted with a familiar nod.

"Hey T." Nyack greeted in return.

"So what were you folks talking about?" Fayez asked, taking off his jacket.

"Tade was disappointed that the twins aren't here yet, because, get this, he thought he could get them to behave for his girlfriend." Essien filled the two newcomers in.

"Ha! Fat chance." Fayez laughed.

"Yeah." Nyack unnecessarily added with an exaggerated guffaw.

"Hey, tone it down there, Champ." Mark teased as he raised his eyebrows in a "whoa" expression.

"Sorry. I just-" Nyack drifted off because he had nothing to say and no one really wanted to listen.

"Anyway," Fayez cut in. "Why don't we crack open some of these beers and Tade can tell us about this girl who's got his non-existent knickers in a twist." He suggested as he passed some cans around.

The sign on the diner door said "closed". Luke, Lorelai, and Rory were sitting at a table in the center of the diner that had an array of dishes spread across its surface.

"So how many of his brothers are going to be there?" Lorelai asked her daughter as she threw a French fry into her mouth.

"Four brothers, a brother-in-law-ish person, and a male friend." Rory clarified.

"Whoa. That's a lot of testosterone." Lorelai's eyebrows inched up her forehead.

"Yeah. I have no idea what to wear. Do I want to look hot or do I want to just be one of the guys?" she asked no one in particular.

"No matter what you wear, you'll look very pretty." Luke calmed.

"Thank you." Rory blushed slightly. "So, anyway, what's the game plan for tomorrow night?" she asked to take the spotlight off of her issues.

"What do you mean by "game plan"?" Luke asked.

"I already have it all figured out." Lorelai put a hand on his shoulder. "You and I are dating. There will be no mention of the fact that you practically live at our house. You live here, I live there, and we see each other for our dates. Ok?" she asked. She wasn't really lying. No. She smiled at the thoughtful look on Luke's face. His hands were in his pockets and he seemed to be playing with something with his right hand.

"There's just one problem with that plan." He began. This was as good a time as any. He took something out of his pocket. "You didn't anticipate that I was going to do this." He said with a small, smile as he opened his palm to reveal a ring. "Lorelai, will you marry me?" He asked with a slight blush creeping up his cheeks as he saw the look of amazement on Lorelai's and Rory's faces.

"Oh Luke." Lorelai hugged him with such force that his chair flipped backwards and brought the both of them tumbling to the ground. She couldn't remember ever being this happy. They hadn't talked about marriage before, but apparently they had both been thinking about it. "Yes." She giggled as she pulled him into a kiss.

"Rory? Is it ok if I marry your mother?" Luke asked with an uncharacteristic grin on his face.

"It's more than ok." Rory was on the verge of tears she was so happy. Finally.

"So where does that leave our game plan?" Luke asked as he attempted to suppress his grin.

"Screw the game plan." Lorelai laughed before kissing her fiancŽ.

That night Rory lay in bed with a huge grin on her face. Her mother deserved this. She took out her cell phone and pressed the two speed dial.

"I love you." She said into the phone.

"I love you too." Tade smiled. He was sitting in the bedroom he had shared with Fayez when they were in high school and that they were sharing now. Fayez let out a loud, girly ooh, but he didn't care.

"Who was that?" Rory asked with a little laugh as she heard Tade being made fun of.

"That was Fayez. He's just jealous that I got me a pretty gal and he is alone." Tade said in a singsong voice with a smirk for the benefit if his friend.

"I'm not alone." Rory could hear Fayez argue with a thick accent. "I've got your weird-ass brother." He added before he and Tade burst into hysterical laughter.

"Ok, I'll leave you boys alone." Rory said with a smile although she felt slightly dejected.

"Alright, I'll call you tomorrow." He assured.

"Ok. Bye." Rory's smile grew.

"Bye." Tade hung up and turned to Fayez with a grin on his face.

"You're so whipped." Fayez laughed.

"You bet your Arab ass I'm whipped, and I like it." Tade smirked before crawling into his bed and turning out the light.

The following evening, Luke, Lorelai, and Rory climbed into Rory's car after a hectic meal at Sookies.

"Whoa." Lorelai breathed from her place in the backseat after a few minutes of silent driving.

"Yeah." Rory shared her mother's amazed expression as she stared at the road ahead of them.

"Jackson's family is just _so _bizarre!" Lorelai exclaimed.

"That one cousin who was wearing two ties?" Rory's shoulder's lifted in bewilderment.

"Did he know?" Lorelai wondered aloud.

"He knew." Luke revealed from his seat next to Lorelai. "I asked him about it. He said that he'd read in some German fashion magazine that it was the new style." He explained.

"Do the German's have fashion?" Lorelai asked.

"I thought they were all about the lederhosen." Rory added.

"So did I, but apparently two ties is the next big thing. I told him he should jump the gun and start wearing two belts as well." Luke continued.

"Mom! You are starting to let your cruel humor rub off on Luke!" Rory reprimanded. Lorelai only let out a triumphant laugh before sharing a high five with Luke. "What am I going to do with you two?" Rory shook her head at the steering wheel.

"Hey, you never know, maybe double accessories will be the cool, new thing." Lorelai said with a shrug and a smirk.

"Hey are you wearing a tie?" Tade asked Essien as they passed in the kitchen while they were getting ready to go out to dinner.

"Nah. Ties are out." Essien answered before they parted ways again.

"What time is this reservation for?" Mark asked as he wandered through the living room looking for his cell phone.

"I heard 8:15." Fayez informed as he stepped out of the kitchen rubbing at a stain on his shirt. "Do you have a shout wipe?" he asked Nyack.

"Yeah, of course." Nyack pulled a small package out of his pocket and tossed it to Fayez. "I heard 7:45." He added before heading out of the room again.

"Who made the reservation?" Mark asked the occupants of he apartment.

"Babe, you made the reservation." Essien called from another room.

"Did I?" Mark ran a hand through his ruffled, red hair. "Oh that's right. Dinner's at 8." He called to everybody.

"Where are we going?" Tade asked.

"Oh crap." Mark moaned before going to find where he'd written down the name of the restaurant.

"Every damn year." Essien shook his head with a smile.

Lorelai, Luke, and Rory stood outside of the huge house in Hartford.

"Why are they doing this again?" Lorelai asked.

"Because they're still trying to pretend like they aren't separated in front of their society friends." Rory answered.

"This should be a hoot." Luke mumbled with a tug at his shirt collar before ringing the doorbell.

"Hello." A new maid greeted after swinging open the large door.

"Hi." Lorelai greeted in return as she took off her coat. She turned to see the amazed look on Luke's face. "Just pretend like this whole thing isn't weird and you'll be all set." She advised.

"Alright, let's get in there before Grandma comes and ridicules us for loitering in the foyer." Rory said as she shoed her mother and Luke into the living room.

"Look who's here." Emily hailed with a look of wavering composure. "Richard, the girls are here!" she called with hesitation.

"She does not look like she's holding up well." Lorelai whispered to Rory.

"I knew this fake meal would be a bad idea." Rory agreed in a hushed tone. "Hi Grandpa." She gave her grandfather a hug because she hadn't seen him in a while, but he merely stood there. He didn't seem to be doing too well either.

"Hello Rory." He said shortly. "How is Yale?" he asked.

"Good." Rory responded politely.

"Good." Richard nodded his distracted approval.

"Howard, Joan, you remember Lorelai?" Emily introduced and old, powerful-looking man and his petite, smiling wife.

"Oh yes. I haven't seen you in, what is it now? Twenty-five years?" Howard wondered in amazement.

"Wow. Time sure does fly." Lorelai replied with a polite smile.

"So Lorelai, what have you been up to since you were eleven?" Joan asked with a warm smile.

"Well, I ran an inn for a while and now I own my own place just outside of Stars Hollow." Lorelai explained before Rory caught her eye with a "what the hell" look. "Oh yeah, I had a kid a while back as well." She added with a laugh. "This is my daughter Rory." She introduced.

"Nice to meet you Rory." Joan greeted.

"Howard, Rory is in her second year at Yale." Richard informed the other man.

"And what are you majoring in?" Howard asked with a broad smile.

"I don't really know yet." Rory said with an exaggerated shrug and a smile before using her eyes to remind her mother about Luke.

"Oh, I completely forgot about you." Lorelai explained to Luke with a laugh. She was distracted watching the unhappy look on her mother's face.

"Thanks." Luke nodded.

"Don't worry, she forgot about me too." Rory smiled sympathetically.

"Sorry. Joan, Howard, this is my, uh, my," Luke sent her a shrug. "This is my fiancŽ, Luke Danes." She finally introduced. Emily choked on her drink.

"Well congratulation you two." Joan said with another warm smile.

"Your fiancŽ?!" Emily sputtered.

"Yeah, mom, dad, Luke and I are getting married." She announced as she held her hand up to show the ring. She and Luke waited hesitantly for a response.

"Let me get the champagne." Richard let a large smile spread across his face. He didn't really know Luke, but he was happy that Lorelai was happy.

"When did this happen?" Emily asked coldly. She was less happy.

"Just yesterday, Mrs. Gilmore." Luke informed.

"Well." Emily gazed into her glass with a far away look of sadness.

"So Rory, do you have a special someone?" Joan asked after the champagne had been served.

"Yeah." Rory replied quietly with a blush rising in her cheeks. A special smile appeared on her lips as she thought about Tade.

"Is it serious?" Joan's intentions were good, but she was starting to get on Rory's nerves.

"Oh, come now, they've only been seeing each other for a few months." Richard scoffed. Rory was a little hurt by the way that he just dismissed her and Tade's relationship, and Lorelai noticed.

"He's a good guy. She's meeting some of his family tomorrow." Lorelai gave her daughter an understanding smile.

"Really?" Emily was less than thrilled to hear this.

"I'm just going down to New York tomorrow to meet a few of his brothers." Rory couldn't understand why her grandmother seemed upset.

"Have you met this boy, Emily?" Joan asked.

"Yes. He was a very charming young man." She replied with a stony expression. "Dangerously charming, in fact." She added quietly.

"What does that mean?" Rory was beginning to get upset.

"I'm just saying." Emily began.

"Well don't. Ok? I know you want to protect me, but I don't need to be protected from Tade." Rory's hands were clenched as she tried to keep her volume in control.

"Well I should hope you're using protection." Emily nearly shouted much to Rory's horror.

"Mom! Rory! Could I speak with you two in private for a moment." Lorelai requested as she led them out of the room by the wrists. She looked at Rory and found that her mouth was still opened in shock. Emily just looked wild. "Could someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?" Lorelai demanded.

"I know she's sleeping with that boy." Emily nearly growled.

"I don't really think that's any of your-" Lorelai didn't get a chance to finish.

"So?!" Rory was angrier than she had ever been. There was no time for embarrassment anymore. "I'm twenty years old! I can fuck anyone I want! And I'm sorry you and Grandpa aren't happy, but don't take it out on me and don't take it out on mom!" Rory was screaming and crying by this point. She had never gotten this angry at anyone in her entire life. She ran out of the door and left a flabbergasted Lorelai and a crying Emily in her wake.

"Mom, I-"Lorelai had nothing to say. She had never seen Rory like that. She was a little scary, in fact. Emily rushed from the room and Lorelai went to get Luke from where he had been stranded in the living room so they could leave.

"What happened in there?" Luke ask once they were outside.

"Rory just blew up. She actually made my mother cry. She made Emily Gilmore cry." Lorelai was in shock. As they neared the car they found Rory huddled in the back seat with tears streaming down her face. "Can you give us a moment?" she asked Luke quietly before getting into the car to comfort her daughter.

"I can't believe I did that." Rory groaned through her tears.

"That was pretty scary. What happened back there?" Lorelai asked tenderly.

"She just made me so angry. First she showed no sign of happiness when you told her about you and Luke and then she turned on Tade. I know she and Grandpa are having problems, but can't she control herself for one evening and not rips everyone's lives apart as well?" Rory was still angry.

"I know honey. She means well. You just have to keep it from getting to you. She doesn't know how deal with her emotions sometimes so she takes it out on those she loves. I'm just sorry she got you so upset." Lorelai put her arm around her daughter's shoulders.

"I guess I didn't really keep it together too well either. I can't believe I made her cry." Rory wiped some tears from her face.

"That was rather impressive." Lorelai gave a sympathetic smile and motioned for Luke to get in the driver's seat. She stayed in the back with Rory as they drove down the dark streets.

"I'll make us some dinner when we get back." Luke promised. He didn't really know what had transpired while they were in the other room, but he knew it was bad.

"Happy Thanksgiving." Lorelai said with a light chuckle. They drove in silence for a little longer, everyone reflecting on the night's events.

"I can't believe I said fuck in front of Grandma." Rory whimpered before the whole car erupted in dark laughter.

"Fuck." Fayez sighed as he collapsed onto the couch. "I ate too much." He moaned.

"Ditto." Tade agreed as he took a seat in the leather armchair.

"It was the shrimp balls that really did it for me." Nyack informed the group.

"Shut up!" Mark groaned. "Don't mention food anymore." He ordered.

"Alright everybody. Let's get to bed and pray that our meal doesn't go to our thighs." Essien said before going into his bedroom.

"Yeah. Sleep sounds good. You guys better be well behaved when Rory comes tomorrow." Tade warned.

"I was thinking I might go pants-less tomorrow." Fayez joked before receiving a smack in the head from Tade.

The next morning Tade rolled out of bed and headed to the kitchen for a soda.

"Would you rather always be covered in bugs or wake up alone in the desert without any way to get home?" Nyack was pestering Fayez.

"I'm from Saudi Arabia." Fayez replied with a groggy voice. "My home _is_ the fucking desert." He picked up his mug of coffee and left the room.

"So when's your girl getting here?" Nyack moved on to Tade.

"Two." Tade answered shortly before leaving the kitchen as well.

"So when is Rory getting here?" Mark asked as he wandered into the living room.

"Two." Tade said again before heading down the hallway to the bathroom.

"So when is-" Essien began as he stepped out of his bedroom.

"Two!" Tade went into the bathroom and shut the door. Home. He couldn't wait for Rory to get there. He'd met her mother so he wasn't too afraid about her seeing his weird family. He just hoped the twins wouldn't scare her too much. They were his main worry. Essien was cool. Mark was nice. Fayez was crude. And Nyack, oh Nyack, well, he was just something else. Everything would be ok though. Hopefully.

Continued in next chapter. Duh. That is the nature of a chapter. Ok, just click the button to get on with the story. You know how it works. You could even go make a sandwich or something before the next chapter. It's really up to you. I could really go for a sandwich right about now. I hope I have cheese.


	12. thanksgiving or whatever, pt 2

Lightning.

A/N: At first I had chapters 11 and 12 in one chapter, but it got ridiculously long so I cut it. Here's the rest.

Chapter Twelve: Thanksgiving Ð Or Whatever, Part Two

"Mom! I have to go!" Rory called from the bottom of the stairs. She was wearing black, dress pants, a blue sweater, and a pained expression. She couldn't wait to see Tade, but she was a little afraid to meet the brothers. A little afraid was an understatement. Why had she made such a big deal about wanting to meet them? She asked herself. Oh yeah, because she loved Tade and he loved these people.

"Ok. Do you have everything?" Lorelai asked after hopping down the stairs and looking her daughter over.

"I guess so." Rory sighed deeply.

"Are you freaking out? Would you like to call up Grandma and swear some more?" Lorelai asked with mock tenderness.

"I still can't believe I did that. She is never going to forgive me." Rory cringed at the memory of the previous night.

"It'll be fine. When I was a teenager the occasional curse would surface in our arguments. It's just one of those things. I mean if we were never supposed to say them they wouldn't have been created." Lorelai shrugged.

"That's not what I remember being taught." Rory smiled.

"Well, rules change. Now get out of here so you can go see your dangerously charming boyfriend." Lorelai smiled and pulled her daughter into a hug.

"I'm going." She hugged her mother back and headed for the door. "Dangerously charming? What the hell does that mean?" Rory rolled her eyes and stepped out the door.

Two hours later she turned off of FDR drive at 14th street. She stopped at a florist shop and bought a bouquet of Lilies for Essien. She would have brought a bottle of wine, but she couldn't legally buy one. The flowers would have to do. She got back in her car and looked at the address she had written down. Prince Street. Perfect.

She drove down the winding streets of lower Manhattan until she reached Prince Street. She drove down the street until she spotted Tade sitting in a beach chair and reading a book in an empty parking space. When he saw her car coming he stood up and moved the chair. Rory pulled into the spot, got out of her car, and pulled Tade into a kiss.

"Saving me a spot?" Rory asked with a grin.

"You've always got a spot with me." He smiled before pulling her into another kiss, which was rudely disturbed when Fayez leaned out the window and shouted at them.

"Hey! Stop smooching in the road and get your asses up here!" Fayez called before pulling his head back through the window.

"Let me guess, that was Fayez." Rory said with blushing cheeks.

"The one and only." Tade shook his head with a smile. He took her overnight bag from her, slung it over his shoulder, wrapped his other arm around her waste, and led them inside. "Everybody get out here and meet Rory!" He called to the scattered occupants of the apartment as he took Rory into the living room. It smelled like the airy remains of leather and cedar wood. Slowly, the various men filtered into the room with expectant looks on their faces.

"Everybody, this is Rory. Rory, this is Essien." Tade gestured to a handsome man of medium height, wearing a diamond ring in his right ear and a hot pink sports coat over his black t-shirt.

"Hello Rory." Essien gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Oh, look at those eyes. You look just like Elizabeth Taylor." He said with a large smile.

"Thank you." Rory blushed deeply. "These are for you." She added handing the bouquet to him.

"Oh these are lovely." Essien said sincerely in his deep voice. "I'm going to go put these in a vase." He smiled before exiting the room.

"This is Mark." Tade indicated the tall, red-haired man, with milky skin. He had a matching diamond ring in his right ear and was wearing jeans and a green sweater that matched his eyes.

"Nice to meet you." Rory greeted Mark with a handshake.

"You too Rory. Just so you know, Essien meant Elizabeth Taylor forty years ago, not now." He explained with a thick, Brooklyn accent.

"Good. Because my hair and I have some arguments, but it hasn't gone full-on Liz yet." Rory joked.

"Over here is Fayez." Tade continued the introductions with a gesticulation towards a very young looking man. He was average height with light, brown skin, big, brown eyes, feminine lips, and a tiny, button nose. There was something familiar about his face that she couldn't identify. He wore baggy jeans and a black polo shirt. He did not fit his description at all

"Hey there. You know you just earned about thirty faggot points in Essien's book of queer with that Liz Taylor joke." Fayez informed through his heavy accent. His personality fit the description.

"Cam!" Tade moaned at his friend.

"Chill out man. I'm just joking." He stood up and shook Rory's hand. "It's very nice to meet you. I've heard nothing but wonderful things." He greeted politely before rolling his eyes at Rory in a good-natured way that brought a smile to her face.

"And this is Nyack." Tade finally introduced the very tall, skinny man who had been standing near by with a goofy look on his face. His hair stuck out in all directions. He had big ears. He was wearing khakis and a polka-dotted oxford shirt with Mickey-Mouse suspenders. He fit his description perfectly.

"Hi!" He greeted a little too enthusiastically in his squeaky voice.

"Nice to meet you." Rory shook his clammy hand with an almost invisibly hesitant look that Mark noticed and caused him to smile widely.

"Alright. I'm going to give Rory a tour of the house. We'll help you cook in a few minutes." Off of Rory's horrified look, "Ok, I'll help you cook, she will go nowhere near the food." He clarified. "So, this is the living room." Tade swept his hand in front of them in a Vana White fashion. Rory looked at the large living room with sunny windows, hardwood floors, black, leather furniture, a plasma TV, an art-deco coffee table, a grand piano, an assortment of other instruments, a humongous sound system, and a whole wall-shelf filled from top to bottom with CDs. She was amazed, to say the least. He led her down a carpeted hallway with walls that were covered in books. "This is the bathroom." Tade touched the first door on their right. "These are closets." He gestured towards two doors on the left. They walked farther down the corridor. "This is the guest room." He opened the second door on the right to reveal a sunny, picturesque room that looked as though it had come straight out of a Pottery Barn catalogue. "This is where the twins will sleep, if they ever get here that is." He shut the door and took her to the door across the hall. "This is mine and Fayez's room." He opened the door and let Rory step inside. It smelled like Tade, horses, cotton, Febreze, and cigarettes. She liked it. It was a large room with white, wall-to-wall carpeting. The large windows shed light throughout the room. On either side of the room was a twin-sized bed. One had a white comforter, the other a black one. Hanging above each bed was a large Sable D'Or flag and a large Saudi Arabian flag, respectively. On the wall adjacent to Tade's bed was a large poster of Frank Sinatra. On the wall adjacent to Fayez's bed was a large poster of Eminem. Against the wall that held the door there was a black, oversized couch with a coffee table made out of compressed soda cans in a glass case. She turned questioning eyes to Tade. "I made that in high school." He answered without requiring a question.

"Wow." Rory stepped farther into the room to look at the stuffed bookshelf behind the couch. "The Baby-Sitter's Club?!" she laughed hysterically.

"Those are Fayez's. He used them to learn English. You should have heard him when he first moved here. He sounded like a major sissy." Tade laughed at the memory.

"Why did he move here?" Rory asked.

"He kept causing a ruckus in the press back home and our parents are friends, so they sent him here. Family misfits always seem to end up here." Tade explained.

"It does seem sort of like a boy haven." Rory remarked.

"It just depends on which gender makes up the majority of the guests. Before I started living here my sister and Mark's oldest niece were crashing here for a bit. It was like girl world. Essien loved it." Tade laughed and Rory smiled too.

"I like him. I like Mark too. He's kind of like a gay version of Luke." This comment sent them both into a fit of laughter. "Fayez seems cool. He does not look the way I imagined though." She went on.

"I know what you mean. He hasn't changed at all since he was fourteen. There's something too-" Tade couldn't think of the word he was looking for.

"Cute." Rory filled in. "He looks like a cute little animal. I just can't figure out which animal." She wondered aloud.

"A camel. It took me two years but I eventually figured it out by looking at a pack of his cigarettes." Tade revealed.

"You're right." Rory's face opened up with that piece of information. She didn't have to spend her entire stay thinking about it. Wait, her stay, where was she staying? "Hey, uh, quick question: where am I staying?" For some reason she was a little embarrassed about having to ask this question. Some paranoid part of her brain came out and tried to convince her that she hadn't actually been invited to spend the night. Luckily her crazy wonderings were ended when Tade spoke.

"Don't worry. Put your paranoid thoughts away." Tade smiled knowingly at her and she blushed. "I got us a room at the Plaza for tonight." He revealed his surprise in a nonchalant tone as he looked at his hands. When he looked back up Rory was beaming. She reached her arms around his neck and pulled him into a short kiss and a hug.

"Oh, but that's too expensive. I can't let you do that." Her worries began to overshadow her joy.

"It's really not that bad. Plus, I don't think I could let a nice girl like you stay with my brothers." He said with a grin.

"They're not that bad." She grinned back.

"Ha. You haven't met the twins yet." He rolled his eyes at the thought of them. "They are major womanizers and for some peculiar reason that I have yet to discover, woman love them in return." He clarified.

"I see. You're worried I'm going to get one look at the double-fun and drop you like a bad habit." She joked with a wide grin. "I get it. I guess I can stay at the settle for a night with you at the Plaza." She shrugged in a mocking way. Tade just shook his head kissed her. He picked her up with one arm around her waste and began to tickle her mercilessly. "Tade!" She giggled breathlessly. "Stop. I give." He stopped tickling her with a mischievous smile.

"Who do you like more than my brothers?" He asked in a deep voice with a hand ready to tickle again.

"Hm." Rory pretended to think. And he tickled her again. "Fine! Fine! I love you the most!" She smiled at him as he pulled her into a hug.

"I love you the most too." He whispered into her ear. They pulled apart and left the room hand in hand with big smiles on their faces. When they reached the end of the hallway they were met with the sight of Fayez, Nyack, and Essien staring at them with raised eyebrows. "What?" Tade asked.

"Do I need to keep a chaperone with you two?" Essien asked with a smirk.

"Huh?" Tade seemed to be out of the loop.

"Our bedroom isn't sound proof." Fayez said, but only received blank stares from Rory and Tade. "No noisy fucking in there please!" He spelled it out for them. Rory's face instantly went red and Tade's hand flew to his forehead.

"We weren't fucking!" Tade explained with a groan.

"Sure you weren't." Fayez said skeptically.

"He was tickling and then-" Rory tried to fix things but was much too embarrassed.

"There was no sex." Tade stated. "And what the hell is with you guys coming out here to listen? You perves." He shook is head at the group.

"Well it was just so bizarre to hear Tade the Prude getting it on." Fayez justified in his coarse way.

"For the last time, we weren't "getting it on" you creep!" Tade shouted without anger at his friend. "And you shouldn't be talking about sex in the room. I have caught you in many a compromising situation in that room." His eyebrows showed him turning the tables.

"Name one." Fayez dared.

"Tina Swistel." Tade countered.

"Who?" Fayez truly didn't remember.

"Big Titty Tina." Nyack interjected with a cracking voice.

"Oh yeah." Fayez smiled at the memory. "Those were some big knockers. Whatever happened to her?" He asked with a far away look.

"I heard she became a porn star." Nyack answered.

"Nah. She married Dorky Dan last year and works at Bergdorf's." Tade cleared up.

"Boys! This is not exactly a topic for company." Essien broke into their reverie as he sent a warm smile in Rory's direction.

"Sorry." Tade shrugged with his lips.

"Yeah. I heard you're not big on swearing and, unfortunately, I have a tendency to flavor my speech with the occasional curse." Fayez explained in his polite voice.

"Don't worry. Tade does that too sometimes and it seems to be rubbing off on me." Rory rolled her eyes at the memory of the previous night.

"Uh-oh. What did you do?" Tade asked with a mockingly stern look.

"I said fuck in front of my grandma." Rory looked at Tade with a cringing smile.

"Alright people! Let's get this girl a soda. She said the F word in front of her grandmother!" Fayez ordered jokingly as they led her into the kitchen. "Take the good stool." He continued the joke as he led her to a stool at the kitchen counter.

"Would you like diet or regular Coke?" Essien asked Rory.

"Regular please." She answered.

"Good." Mark said as he fidgeted with the stove. "Diet is for chumps." He grumbled.

"Hey, sometimes a girls got to take drastic measures to keep her figure. Even is it means drinking tasteless cancer juice." Essien said as he handed a regular Coke to Rory and took a diet for himself. "Have you tried this new Coca-Cola C2 thing with half the carbs?" He asked her.

"No, but I've been meaning to." Rory said. She and her mother had just seen the commercial and hadn't gotten around to buying any yet.

"I had some yesterday." Tade broke in. "It tastes like regular Coke, but a little fruity with a little something else in there too." He informed.

"Hey, that's just like Essien." Mark interposed, giving Essien a nudge.

"Indeed." He joked back with a smile.

"Hang on here!" Nyack stopped them all. "Why did you say fuck in front of your grandmother?" He asked Rory.

"Lord, I don't know. We were fighting and it just came out." Rory illustrated this with a flick of her wrist near her mouth.

"What were you fighting about?" Tade asked with his brow slightly furrowed. He didn't like when Rory got into fights with her grandma because it always made her upset.

"Uh," She blushed deeply. "You." She said quietly.

"Oh!" Fayez shouted. "I knew my boy was getting some!" He laughed and patted Tade on the back. Tade shook it off and sent a death glare at him. Mark smacked Fayez in the back of the head. Rory just turned red. "Sorry. I just can't control what I say sometimes. Shit, I got kicked out of my own country because of that." He shrugged.

"Tade told me about that." Rory got her embarrassment under control. "What exactly happened there?" she really wanted to know.

"Let's see, I mooned the paparazzi, I gave the finger more times than I can count, I had an affair with the editor of one of the top gossip magazines when I was fourteen, and just a bunch of other stuff like that, but it was the affair that got me a plane ticket here." He raised a shoulder in indifference as Rory's eyebrows raised in amazement.

"All of that does sound rather rebellious, but why was the paparazzi following you in the first place?" Rory asked.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce him completely." Tade jumped in. "This is Prince Fayez XIII." He introduced again.

"Unlucky Number Thirteen, that's what the press called me. That is, of course, until I got lucky with the editor." Fayez smiled.

"Another prince! Mark, are you a prince too?" Rory didn't see that coming.

"Nope. I'm just Mark Alexander from Brooklyn." He said as he opened a large can of pineapples.

"Thank God. This was getting ridiculous." Rory shook her head with a smile as they heard the front door open.

"Hey you bitches! The party can finally begin cause we're here and we're fuckin' hungry," Thembi hollered as he and Dinari dropped their bags and trudged into the kitchen. Rory looked at the one who had spoken first. He had a lighter complexion than Tade. He had a triangular nose, a stubble-covered chin, big, shiny eyes, and thick, harsh, eyebrows. He wore a black bandana on his head, a worn, brown leather jacket, a torn, black t-shirt, ripped jeans, and brown boots. The other one had identical features, but his face was clean-shaven, his left eyebrow was pierce, and his dark hair was pulled into a short ponytail at the base of his neck. He had taken off his black, leather jacket and he held it in his large, muscular hands. He wore a black t-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled into the right sleeve. His arms were muscular and his veins were raised in his skin. On his left bicep was a tattoo of the Sable D'Or flag, and on the other was a tattoo of the letter D wearing a crown. His jeans weren't ripped, but they had a large, black oil stain across the left knee. On his feet he wore a pair of black penny loafers that made one wonder what his story was.

"Guys, this is Rory. Rory, this is Thembi and this is Dinari." Tade indicated with a respective gesture.

"Nice to meet you." Rory said politely. Dinari nodded his greeting, while Thembi stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.

"So you're the girlfriend." Thembi greeted a little too loudly. "God, you're gorgeous." He said, stepping back to look her over. "Damn bro, you did good." He said, slapping Tade on the back.

"See what I told you." Essien said to Tade. "Nothing can keep these knuckleheads from being rude, not even the presence of a nice girl like Rory." He shook his head at the twins.

"He's right." Thembi conceded. "Anyway, when are we eating?" He asked as he looked towards Mark who was mixing peanut butter, Tabasco, and cilantro in a saucepan.

"Three minutes. Go sit at the table and stop crowding me." Mark answered.

"I see Mark's still got a bug up his ass. Nice to know there are some things you can count on." Thembi turned to Nyack. "Nyack the Ass-Crack, how's MIT treating you?" he asked as he wrapped an arm around Nyack's neck.

"It's treating me very nicely." Nyack answered with some fear in his voice.

"Good." Thembi turned to Fayez. "Fay, sleep with any older women since I last saw you?" he asked as he bobbed his eyebrows playfully.

"You know it man." Fayez smirked.

"I love that nothing ever changes around here. Except of course," Thembi spun on the heels of his boot so that he was facing Tade with a cocked eyebrow. "For my baby brother. We were really thrown for a loop when we heard you were bringing a girl. I was beginning the Ntekim charm only made it to the first eight children cause God knows Ass-Crack didn't get any, but I guess I was wrong." Thembi gave Tade a light punch in the jaw. "Tell me Rory," He sent a sexy smile in her direction. "Did my baby brother get his fair share of charm?" he was blatantly flirting now.

"More than just a fair share." She answered as she wrapped an arm around Tade's waste and pulled him close to her. She saw that Tade was beginning to look sad as he watched his brother flirt with her. He sent her a large smile when she pulled him close. "Some might even call him dangerously charming." She echoed her grandmother's words and sent a triumphant look at a dejected Thembi as Tade kissed the top of her head.

"Shot down!" Fayez boomed. "Nicely done Rory." He held his hand out for a high-five, which she gladly received. "You shot down that flirting bastard." He sounded genuinely impressed.

"Me? Flirting?" Thembi scoffed.

"Don't do it again." Dinari's deep, scratchy voice left the room quiet. "Tade's a good kid. Leave Rory alone." He ordered his brother before placing a cigarette between his lips, lighting it, and returning to silence.

"Thanks D." Tade said softly. Dinari sent a slight nod before returning his gaze to the curl of smoke that he released from his lips. Tade had an immense respect for Dinari, but he was more afraid of losing Rory to him than to Thembi. Dinari had a sex appeal that was known in every corner of Sable D'Or. He got anything and anyone without even wanting them. Tade noticed a small, stunned smile sitting on Rory's lips and a weight fell on his heart. His thoughts were disturbed, however, when Mark spoke.

"Alright you animals. Grub's ready." He shoed them towards the large, wooden table, with the pot of food in hand. Essien took a seat at one end. Rory, Tade, and Fayez sat on one side, and Thembi, Dinari, and Nyack sat on the other. When Mark finished serving the food he took his place at the empty end. Rory hadn't really had time to register all the strange ingredients that had been put into this dish, so when she was served a bowl of brown goop she put on a brave face.

"So what exactly is this?" She asked with an oversized smile.

"This is an old recipe from back home." Essien explained.

"Not my home." Fayez pushed his spoon through the brown slush and made a sound of disgust as he let his breath out of his pursed lips.

"It's Pineapple Peanut Stew." Mark said as he pulled the cork from a bottle of champagne and poured a glass for everyone. "Honey, will you do the honors?" he asked Essien.

"Of course babe." Essien stood with is glass raised. "May the kings of Sable D'Or live forever. Vive Le France. Vive L'Italia. Long live the Queen. God bless America. And fuck George W. Bush." He finished.

"Cheers!" Everyone said as they clinked their glasses together. They all sipped their champagne, sat back down, and took a bite of the stew. Rory had never tasted anything as bad as that stew in her entire life, but she hid her grimace to be polite. She didn't notice the similar grimaces on the faces of those at the table.

"Ok. We've paid homage to Sable." Mark said putting down his spoon and standing from the table. "I'll be back with the pizzas in ten minutes." He announced before walking out of the kitchen. Everyone else put down their spoons and gathered their plates to bring to the dishwasher.

"What the hell was that?" Rory asked Tade in a hushed tone.

"That was patriotism, Sable style." He answered as though this were normal. "What? You didn't think I expected you to eat that shit?" He asked her with a smile. "Do you know what's in that crap? Onions, garlic, vegetable oil, Swiss chard, pineapple, peanut butter, Tabasco, cilantro, scallions, and salt." He listed. Rory let her face contort in repulsion. "Exactly." He smiled before taking her dish and bringing it to the dishwasher.

"Let's all adjourn to the living room. Shall we?" Essien suggested before grabbing the champagne bottle from the table and prancing out of the kitchen.

"We shall!" Fayez called after him before leaving the room as well.

"Is it just us or does that shit get grosser every year?" Thembi asked no one in particular before exciting.

"It's not just you." Nyack croaked before following the others.

Dinari merely shook his head at the thought of the whole family and left to stand in the far corner of the living room.

"How are you holding up?" Rory asked as she entwined her fingers with Tade's. She had noticed the smile slip from his face when he watched Dinari.

"I should be asking you that." He smiled again as he looked at her. "This place is like the outpatient zone of an insane asylum." He grinned as he rested his head on her shoulder.

"Hey. I'm from Stars Hollow. This is totally doable." She smiled and kissed his cheek before leading him into the living room to join the others.

"We are not singing that." Thembi stated with a wild gesticulation in the direction of Essien.

"What aren't we singing ?" Tade asked as he took a seat in the black, leather armchair and pulled Rory into his lap.

"Tiny Dancer by Elton John." Thembi moaned.

"You suggest that every year." Tade waved a hand of dismissal at his brother.

"I like that song." Rory put out there.

"That's all well and good, but little kids don't like that song. It's not fast enough." Thembi explained.

"Oh. Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Rory asked. For some, reason she was starting to feel more comfortable around these people.

"They're planning what we're going to sing for the Spring Concert for the Kids at home." Tade explained. "We end up talking about it every Thanksgiving and they ignore the fact that we've been singing pretty much the same thing for the past five years." He said with a roll of his eyes.

"Yeah. We used to have a much wider selection before that. You completely blew it for us Tade." Thembi said with mock anger.

"How did you blow it?" Rory asked Tade with a smile.

"Dirrrrrty." Essien rolled his Rs and he and Rory shared a light laugh. She really like him, and, for some reason, felt a strong desire to introduce him to her mother.

"Anyway, I didn't blow it," Tade looked at the giggling face of Rory and Essien. "I mean, I didn't screw it up, puberty did." He stated to the confused look on Rory's face. "We used to be able to do a lot of Jackson Five songs, but I can't hit the high notes like I used to." He explained.

"You are a total failure." Fayez joked.

"Thanks." Tade said sarcastically in return.

"Anyway, what have we got lined up for this year?" Essien asked.

"Ok. We open with Queen's "We Will Rock You", then we do Frank's "Swinging on a Star", then the Beatles' "Twist and Shout", then Bobby Darin's "Don't Rain on My Parade", and those are all the regulars." Tade listed.

"I say we do Dusty Springfield's "Put a Little Love in Your Heart"." Nyack suggested. In response he had a pillow chucked at his head by Thembi.

"They're never going to let you do that song man." Fayez said with a shake of his head.

"Why do we always have so much Frank Sinatra in the line up?" Nyack whined.

"Why do we have so much Frank? Why do we have so much Frank?!" Tade hollered at his squeaky voiced brother.

"Uh-oh." Mark whistled. He had come in the door in time to hear the last bit of this exchange. He set the pizza boxes on the coffee table, took a slice, and prepared to watch the fight unfold.

"Frank was the greatest singer to ever live! And considering I do most of the singing at this thing, I say we sing Frank! Got it?!" Tade got very defensive when it came to Frank Sinatra.

"You said it boy." Mark approved.

"In fact, I'm going to throw "High Hopes" into the line up because Frank is just that great and you are not!" Tade shouted. He took the slice pizza that Rory passed to him. "Thank you." He smiled at her. As the group fell into silence and ate, Dinari walked to the piano and took a seat on the bench. He propped his cigarette on the music stand and began to play the harsh, thumping notes of the Tom Waits song.

"I like my town with a little drop of poison.

Nobody knows they're lining up to go insane.

I'm all alone. I smoke my friends down to the filter,

But I feel much cleaner after it rains.

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall.

She always had that little drop of poison.

She left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall.

She always had that little drop of poison." His shoulders were hunched as his muscular arms and hands pounded out the notes. His scratchy voice sounded remarkably like Tom Waits'. It was sexy with just a little drop of poison.

"Did the devil make the world while God was sleeping?

You'll never get a wish from a bone.

Another wrong good-bye and a hundred sailors.

That deep blue sky is my home.

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall.

She always had that little drop of poison.

She left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall.

She always had that little drop of poison.

Well a rat always knows when he's in with weasels.

Here you lose a little every day.

I remember when a million was a million.

They all have ways to make you pay.

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall.

She always had that little drop of poison.

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall.

She always had that little drop of poison. " He finished pounding the keys, stood up, put his cigarette back in his mouth, and propped his elbows on his knees. He was done. Everyone in the room had stopped to watch and listen as the quiet one sang. They stared in silence for a moment.

"I say we whip out the Beastie Boys with "Fight for Your Right to Party"." Thembi ended the silence and the group broke into chatter again.

"Does this sort of thing happen often?" Rory whispered her question into Tade's ear. He had to think about this for a moment.

"Only every time we all get together." He gave her a brave smile. She saw that he really missed his brothers when he was at school. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and his smile grew.

"You guys should do this more often." She leaned her head on his shoulder.

"No way." Mark broke into their private conversation. "I'll die and early death if I have to see these boys all at once more than three times a year." He shook his head at his pizza.

"Well, start preparing your will cause we're moving back to the Big Apple." Thembi slapped Mark and the back and grinned widely.

"I hate you." Mark said in a flat tone.

"That's what all the ugly girls say." Thembi joked in return as he pinched Mark's cheek.

"This is my family." Tade whispered to Rory. She smiled and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you." She whispered. He nodded. He knew what she meant. She leaned back into his chest and watched the family in front of her. It was something special alright.


	13. what? pt 1

Lightning

A/N: You know what's weird? If I had died, you wouldn't have known. You would have just assumed that I was another asshole fanficer who had gotten bored and stopped writing a story that you were enjoying. Of course, the reality of the situation is that I didn't die, I really am just an asshole, but that doesn't change the fact that I could have been dead; but I'm not. Yay! Sorry. I was trying to distract you from my shittiness with a profoundly morbid idea. Did it work?

A/N2: I hate Bush.

Chapter Thirteen: What? Part One

"So what were they like?" Lorelai asked into the phone on Monday night, from where she sat, perched on the kitchen counter, waiting for her coffee to brew.

"They were really-" Rory paused. What was the word? "Cool. They were very cool." She decided with a nod.

"Cool?" Lorelai raised an eyebrow.

"I know it doesn't seem like a helpful adjective, but if you meet them, you'll understand." Rory clarified.

"Ok. I guess that works." Lorelai conceded with a shrug.

"I think you'd really like his brother, Essien and Essien's boyfriend, Mark. It makes me feel even closer to Tade, knowing that he spent his teenage years with them as his guardians because they are so much like you and Luke, you know, just that they're men, and gay." Rory rambled. She desperately wanted her mother to understand.

"Something tells me it wasn't exactly the same." Lorelai smiled. She loved that Rory was so happy.

"Of course not. I mean, he grew up in _New York City_, while I was out in the sticks." Rory was still amazed by New York. She'd been a few times, but she'd never really _done _New York before.

"How was the rest of your time in the City anyway?" Lorelai asked, sensing that there was more.

"Oh it was fabulous." Rory gushed. "He took me to the Met and then we went to a really great Japanese restaurant and he took me to the Strand and we went to see "Mamma Mia!" and then we went to the Magnolia Bakery to get their famously delicious cupcakes, and then, on Sunday, we had tea at the Plaza. Oh! I didn't even mention that we stayed at the Plaza! The Plaza! I felt like Eloise!" Rory was actually standing on her bed and bouncing around as she told her mother about her terrific weekend.

"That's the coolest thing I've ever heard!" Lorelai was jumping around the kitchen.

"I know! He completely surprised me. I thought we were going to be stuffed into the apartment with his brothers, but the Plaza! Ah! He got us champagne, but not in some skeevy way or anything, cause he got French fries and cake too and then we watched "101 Dalmations."" Rory babbled with glee.

"Oh, that's so exciting, and sweet, and ugh, you're so lucky, I can't even grasp it all." Lorelai grinned.

"I know! My life is totally perfect right now!" Rory hopped in circles on her bed because her smile couldn't get any bigger and she needed to expel her happiness somehow.

"Oh, babe, I'm so happy that you're happy. I just want you to know that. This time last year you were so not happy, and so, just I'm glad things are working out. Please give Tade my thanks for making you happy, in a not creepy, dirty way." Lorelai rambled with a smile.

"I will try." Rory smiled at her crazy mother.

"That's all I ask, sweets." Lorelai shook her head at her own nuttiness.

"Anyway, I've got crap to do, so I'm going to say goodbye now. Say "hi" to Luke for me." Rory said.

"Will do. Bye kid." Lorelai finished.

"Bye." Rory bounced into a sitting position on her bed, hung up the phone, and opened a textbook with a grin.

XXXXX

The next evening, Rory and Tade were sprawled on his bed watching "It Happened One Night".

"Did you know that after this movie came out the undershirt market plummeted because Clark Gable didn't wear an undershirt?" Tade asked without taking his eyes from the screen.

"No." Rory smiled at him. "I didn't know that Clark's bare chest had disturbed the previously thriving undershirt industry." She turned to meet his gaze.

"Are you mocking me?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Maybe." Rory grinned. "It's how I show my love." She kissed his cheek.

"If that's the case, our kids are going to be seriously messed up." Tade mumbled as a joke before he realized what he had said.

"What?" Rory was trying to stay cool, but was failing miserably. Had he just said "our kids"?

"What?" Tade was looking anywhere but at Rory. Had he just said "our kids"?

"What?" This was getting repetitive, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Sorry." He met her eyes with a pained look. "I don't know where that came from. I was joking and then it was just like vomit, I couldn't stop it. Just bleh, it spilled out. Sorry." Tade rambled his apology. He felt an apology was in order. Why? He didn't know. The look on Rory's face, perhaps. The fear. The giant eyes. The fear.

"No. It's ok." She stopped him by taking his hand, but she still looked distracted. "I just, uh, didn't-" Rory's words drifted off. She didn't know what to say. Why the hell was she freaking out so much? Tade looked at her with concern for a moment before they both looked back at the screen. By far, the easiest way to kill an evening was to let slip those two frightening words. Our kids.

XXXXX

"He just said it?" Lane asked incredulously over the phone.

"Yeah. No warning whatsoever. One moment we were just hanging out and the next thing I know it's "our kids." How the hell do you respond to that?" Rory's eyes were wide as she paced around her dorm room.

"I don't know. I've never been in that situation. What did you do?" Lane inquired with inexorable attention.

"I said "what" then he said "what" then I said "what" again and then he apologized because, apparently I looked so freaked out that he felt the need to apologize for letting it slip that he thinks about our future and the kids that we will have in this future." Rory babbled.

"Oh. Why were you so freaked out?" Lane asked quietly, afraid that it might be the wrong thing to ask.

"Because! Kids! I'm twenty years old. I've never spent any time around kids. In fact, they scare the shit out of me. Not to mention the fact that my entire upbringing has been based around this huge fear of untimely pregnancy, which, in turn translated into a giant fear of ever having children!" Rory let out in a rapid stream of psychoanalysis.

"Wow. And I thought my childhood was scarring." Lane mumbled.

"See! And I totally freaked Tade out with my freak out and so now we're both freaking out, but we're pretending like we're not so that we don't need to talk about it because apparently we can talk about everything except our future breeding (yuck). I mean, how could we ever discuss this? Why would we? We're still children ourselves! And we've only been dating for a few months and is he even allowed to marry me? And he is one of ten kids, how many kids does he want? Because I'm sure as hell not having ten kids." Rory thought aloud.

"Huh." Lane said after a moment of silence.

"What?" Rory was confused.

"You just went from freaking out about having children in general to deciding that you just didn't want to have _ten_ of Tade's kids." Lane summarized.

"And?" Rory questioned.

"And nothing. I just find it interesting how your thoughts unfolded." Lane tried not to cause any conflict.

"Yeah, well, don't read too much into things, I'm just babbling like an idiot. I'm sure everything will work itself out." Rory said, mostly to herself.

"I'm sure it will." Lane said with a small smirk in her voice. "Anyway, I have to go to work. Call me if there are any, uh, developments." She cringed at the word choice. "You're coming home on the fourth though, right?" she inquired.

"Yeah, I'll talk to you later. Bye." Rory said distractedly. What was the date today? She rifled through her planner. Uh-oh.

"Bye." Lane said with hesitation before the line went dead. That was weird.

Rory let the phone slip from her hand as she became engrossed with her day planner. She flipped the pages, furiously scanning for the information that would mollify her worrying mind. No. No. No. No. This couldn't be right. It must be stress that's throwing everything out of whack. But she wasn't stressed. Well, now she was, but she hadn't been before. Or was she? She couldn't remember anything anymore. All she knew was that she needed to stay calm and that she needed to call her mother. No. She couldn't call her mother. She should call Tade. Tade or Lorelai? She was torn. What was one supposed to do in a situation like this?

XXXXX

Tade sat in class and listened to some old guy talk about Puritans. He wasn't really listening. No. He was mentally slapping himself. What kind of a guy starts talking about his future children with his girlfriend of three months? He knew he freaked her out. As he got to know her more and more, he noticed her general uneasiness around kids, mostly babies. He supposed it had to do with Lorelai and that whole story. He understood, but some tiny portion of his brain, it wasn't even his brain, it was his heart, yes, a tiny portion of his heart couldn't help but feel rejected. Did she never think about their future? Not even a little? He thought about it. He didn't dwell on it or anything, but sometimes, late at night or when he saw a blue-eyed child he would let his imagination wander.

XXXXX

She was in the drug store, surreptitiously nearing the aisle she needed. She had carefully inspected toothbrushes and shampoo until she rounded the corner and came face to face with a pack of diapers. They were just diapers, but they made a chill run through her back and her feet come to a halt on the linoleum floor. She had only ever thought about babies with fear. To her they had always represented a ruined future and the disappointment of family. She had never really let herself think of them as anything she might hope for one day. This seemed weird to her now. For many people procreation was the ultimate goal. She didn't think this was a healthy way to go through life, but she slowly realized that her view wasn't much better. She clenched her fists in an effort to exert some control over her thoughts. No matter how she felt about kids or the prospect of having kids, she had to deal with the chance that she could, in fact, be pregnant at that very moment. The P word gave her a jolt of courage and her hand shot out and grabbed a pregnancy test from the shelf. She marched to the counter and paid for the item without making eye contact with the cashier. With the semi-translucent bag in hand, she got back into her car.

As she drove back to her dorm, she felt a familiar sensation that she had always dreaded, but, at this moment, brought her more relief than she could ever have imagined. Her period. James Joyce had once referred to it as "the strange humiliation of women's nature." Rory had always thought this was the most accurate description, but not today. Today it was a godsend. A second chance at life. Essentially, that's what it was. The future that could have been destroyed was safe for at least a little while longer.

She let a small squeal of delight escape her lips before flipping on the radio to an old Backstreet Boys song that actually made her smile as she sang the words that she pretended she didn't know.

XXXX

After making a pit-stop at her dorm room, Rory pulled her car into a space where she wasn't supposed to park, and got out. She spotted Tade's graceful form emerging from the large building in front of her and she took off running in his direction. He was staring at his feet when she slapped the notebook out of his hands. He raised his eyes in anger until he saw the devilish grin on Rory's face and she wrapped her arms around his neck, lifted her feet off the ground, and gave him a soft, smiling kiss.

"Hi." She let her feet settle back on the ground but kept her arms around his neck.

"Do I know you? You look so familiar. Are you an actress?" He joked with a huge grin.

"No, but I play one on TV." She played along. God, she could play along with him forever. Where did that thought come from?

"Not that I'm complaining, but to what do I owe this much appreciated greeting?" Tade asked with a smirk.

"Oh," Rory's smile wavered. Should she tell him? "I just had a little scare earlier, but everything's ok now." She smiled warmly at him.

"What happened?" She knew he would ask this. His tone was full of concern as he played with the end of her ponytail.

"It's not important." She said, hoping he wouldn't press the matter. With this she turned and led him back to her car. She gave him one more peck on the cheek before getting in her side of the car. The passenger side door opened and then there was silence. No movement whatsoever. Rory looked over to see what the hold up was and caught sight of what had captured Tade's gaze. "Damn." She muttered.

Tade just stood there. Through the semi-translucent bag on the passenger's seat he saw a box with a picture of a baby and the words "Pregnancy Test" across the front. He didn't hear Rory's muttering, but he did see her small hand snatch the bag off the seat and chuck it behind her. He didn't know what to do. "Was that the scare or is this something else?" He heard himself ask before he sat gingerly in the seat with one leg still outside of the car.

"That was the scare. I'm not-" Rory wasn't able to say the word out loud. It was like a four letter word that happened to be spelled with eight.

"But how do you know? You didn't take the test." Tade hadn't blinked once. His mind couldn't put together normal thoughts. He looked like a little boy.

"Uh," Rory blushed and looked at her hands. "There are other ways to find out." She scratched her eyebrow uncomfortably.

"Oh." Tade's turn to be embarrassed. He pulled his right leg into the car and shut the door so as to have something else to look at. Rory started the car in motion. After a few moments of silence he looked at her. Really looked at her. His eyes took in her familiar face and drifted down her body and settled on her abdomen. He was entranced. That's where his kid could have been. She had the ability to have children. Of course he knew this, but he hadn't really _known_ it until that moment. She seemed so much more fragile and so much stronger at the same time.

"What?" Rory could feel his eyes on her and turned to catch him looking at her stomach. She was suddenly afraid. Of what? That he wouldn't find her attractive anymore? That he would be frightened of her? Why would she think this? Because she sort of felt that way about herself.

"Sometimes I forget just how magical women are." He answered without thinking. He was suddenly embarrassed by this overly honest response, but when he saw the almost relieved smile on Rory's lips, he smiled back.

"Thanks." She said sincerely. With those honest and childish words he had wiped away all her fears.

"For what?" He asked with genuine bewilderment.

"For being you." She grinned at his perplexed features.

Tade didn't know how to respond to that. He didn't understand how he had just cheered Rory up when he'd thought he was saying the wrong thing. He didn't know how he was supposed to react. Should they talk about it? What sort of thoughts had run through Rory's head? Had she been scared? Was he scared or did he just feel like he was supposed to be scared?

"Were you scared?" His voice came out in a whisper that sounded too loud for the silence in the car.

"Yeah." She answered in a similar tone. She glanced at him and saw that he was looking somewhere she couldn't see. He was in his own thoughts and trying to understand. "Were you scared, just then, when you saw that on the seat?" She asked quietly.

"No." He said it before he had known it was true, but it was. He hadn't been scared. He was afraid of what Rory's reaction would be. He was afraid that Rory was upset, that he had ruined her life, but he wasn't afraid of the possibility of a baby. A baby. Why didn't he find that scary?

"Oh. You looked scared." She murmured.

"I was afraid of you, not of it." He didn't even know if he was making sense anymore.

"Me?" She didn't understand. She wasn't offended. She couldn't be. He was being so honest, like he didn't even realize what he was saying.

"I was afraid that I had made your worst nightmares come true. I can't imagine what sort of position this put you in, what sort of thoughts went through your head. That's a lie, I can imagine your thoughts and that's what scares me." He tore his gaze away from his thoughts and let himself look at her, but by the time he did, she had already drifted into her own thoughts.

"I was really scared, but I'm glad. This sounds insane, but I needed to let myself think those things. I've pushed them away for so long because they had become some sort of taboo in my mind, but I needed to really think. I needed something this frightening to make me think about things without organization. No lists. No weighing the good against the bad, just pure thought." She shared.

"Uh, what did you learn from these thoughts?" He asked tentatively.

"That I need to think more. " She paused and Tade hoped that she wasn't done. He knew she had more to say and just hoped she would say it to him. "I felt like I had been granted a second chance at life when I found out I wasn't Ð" she still couldn't say it. "I can't approach this second chance with the same views as the first. To me, children have always meant good-bye to foreign correspondence, hello to cleaning toilets. I can't think like that anymore. It's just not healthy. I can't think about my future the same way I did when I was twelve." She paused.

"Just," Tade cut in, "Just don't give up all your twelve year old thoughts. Don't become jaded. You can do anything you want. Don't ever forget that. No matter what happens, "He met her eyes, "You can do anything. If you had been pregnant, "He said it because he knew she wouldn't, "I would have done anything and everything to make sure your dreams still came true." He smiled shyly at her and she smiled back.

After a few nice minutes of warm silence, Rory felt compelled to speak again.

"Do you like babies?" As soon as she asked it she wanted to slap herself. For some reason she didn't think it was the right thing to ask at that moment. Perhaps it was the word "babies" that left an unwelcomed taste in her mouth.

"Uh," Tade rubbed his thumb over his eyebrow. "I don't really know. I know that someday I want to have kids, but I've never spent a lot of time around babies." He noticed Rory visibly relax and felt that he should try to lighten the mood. "I mean, I know babies are great and you can't not like babies, but there's just something about them that's strange." He saw the small smile form on Rory's lips. "It may be the frightening and generally repulsive circumstance under which they come into being that makes me feel this way, though. Or maybe it has something to do with that feeling you get when someone totally A-sexual like your high school math teacher tells you she's pregnant and you just feel overwhelmed by a need to vomit at the thought that someone like Mrs. Carson had sex in the recent past." Tade's ramble ended when he heard Rory's snort of laughter.

"The worst is when someone tells you that she's "trying" and you're just like, ew, that's great. You just told me that you spend all of your free time having lots of unprotected sex with your significant other. Thanks." Tade laughed with her. They were both glad that the weirdness was over.

"I honestly believe that the grossest phrase in the English language is "making babies." Can we say yuck?" He joked. They both laughed and shook their heads at the thought of all those fools in the mixed-up world of babies.

To Be Continued.

I'll post Part Two tomorrow. If you give me lots of reviews, I may just update sooner.


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